Most popular stories, August 2024

By Si Ying Thian

GovInsider’s August top reads dive into the latest developments in government technology and policy.

Most popular stories, August 2024. Image: Canva.

We explore the UK's digital government shakeup, Singapore's strategies for leveraging AI and fostering active ageing, and how the city-state is learning from a recent tech incident.

1. UK’s digital government restructures and gets new Chief

Amidst the UK’s digital government restructuring, long-time public sector digital transformation consultant Emily Middleton has taken up the role of clarifying the vision and strategy of the UK’s new digital centre. Click image to access article >>>

“Britain will not fully benefit from the social and economic potential of science and technology without government leading by example,” said UK’s Secretary of State, Peter Kyle.

2. Singapore crowdsources information from tech partners – as follow-up to CrowdStrike incident

Digital Infrastructure Act (DIA) will ensure adoption of baseline security and resilience standards and improve government’s visibility and understanding of significant disruptions. Click image to access article >>>

“We are also working with CrowdStrike and Microsoft to understand the root cause of the recent incident. We will assess the extent to which findings can be made public so as not to compromise security,” said a Ministry of Digital Development and Information’s spokesperson.

3. Tapping on AI for Singapore’s “smarter” nation policy

With artificial intelligence (AI) being a key part of Smart Nation, the government applies the same principles in growing AI as those used for achieving excellence in digital governance, says Minister. Click image to access article >>>

“We would like to see AI innovations in the public sector and for the public good,” said Minister of Ministry of Digital Development and Information , Josephine Teo.

4. Dr RUSSELL-GPT will see you now

Singapore’s National University Health System's Head of Academic Informatics Office, Dr Ngiam Kee Yuan, shares how the regional health cluster is tapping on GenAI through Amazon Web Services to reduce administrative load on healthcare staff. Click image to access article >>>

“Me personally, I want to press a button and say, you know, reply to all these emails for me. If I never have to reply, that will save two hours a day for me,” said National University Health System’s Kee Yuan Ngiam.

5. Active ageing a cornerstone of Singapore’s strategy to manage an ageing population

Singapore’s Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) will absorb the Council for Third Age (C3A), and become a one-stop hub for seniors to access learning and volunteerism programmes. Click image to access article >>>

“It would be more convenient for our partners and service providers to work with a single lead agency to expand their outreach to benefit more seniors in Singapore. This would be a significant step in our Age Well SG initiative,” said Agency for Integrated Care (Singapore)’s CEO Dinesh Vasu Dash.