The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Microsoft Corporation have on last Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to deepen collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) safety and security.
The partnership reflects both organizations’ commitment to ensuring that AI development remains safe, secure, and trustworthy, the duo said in a statement.
Under the MOU, IMDA and Microsoft will work together across three key areas – technical and research collaborations on AI safety and security; facilitating information sharing on AI safety and security; developing a policy framework for trusted access to frontier AI models.
According to the statement, the scope of the MOU will include joint research into agentic AI and the development of evaluation methods, tools, and benchmarks for AI models, including in the area of multilingual AI safety.
It will also explore ways to strengthen societal resilience against broader trust and safety challenges posed by AI systems.
IMDA and Microsoft will also exchange knowledge, best practices, governance frameworks, and research findings on AI safety and security.
This information may be extended to relevant ecosystem partners where appropriate.
IMDA, the Singapore AI Safety Institute and Microsoft will work together, with participation from other Singapore government agencies to explore a framework for how governments and infrastructure operators can responsibly structure access to frontier AI models for purposes such as safety and security testing.
This work will include the joint development of a white paper examining demand-side needs, including those of government agencies and infrastructure operators, and supply-side policy considerations for model providers.
The two parities highlighted that such partnerships are essential as AI is moving faster than any single actor can manage alone.
It is also in line with Singapore’s collaborative approach, where they partner with industry to collectively advance the science of AI safety and security even as the technology rapidly evolves.
The goal is ultimately a trusted ecosystem which facilitates innovation while still ensuring safe and reliable development and deployment.
“Our collaboration on AI safety with Microsoft demonstrates how government and industry can partner together to drive and scale good governance for the public good,
“This goes beyond developing policy frameworks towards jointly building benchmarks, tools and other evaluation methods, concretely advancing the state of evaluation sciences in an area of increasing importance,” said Kiren Kumar, Deputy Chief Executive, IMDA.
Meanwhile, Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft, said Singapore is helping shape the global conversation on how AI can be developed and deployed safely, securely, and responsibly.
“Through this partnership with IMDA, we can combine government insight with Microsoft’s technical and operational experience to strengthen AI evaluation, address emerging risks, and build greater trust in advanced AI systems,” she added.
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