Singapore Patrol Robots Stoke Fears of Surveillance State

During a three-week trial in September, two robots were deployed to patrol a Singapore housing estate and shopping center. Roslan RAHMAN AFP
During a three-week trial in September, two robots were deployed to patrol a Singapore housing estate and shopping center. Roslan RAHMAN AFP
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Singapore Patrol Robots Stoke Fears of Surveillance State

During a three-week trial in September, two robots were deployed to patrol a Singapore housing estate and shopping center. Roslan RAHMAN AFP
During a three-week trial in September, two robots were deployed to patrol a Singapore housing estate and shopping center. Roslan RAHMAN AFP

Singapore has trialed patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behavior", adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fueling privacy concerns.

From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants.

Officials have long pushed a vision of a hyper-efficient, tech-driven "smart nation", but activists say privacy is being sacrificed and people have little control over what happens to their data.

Singapore is frequently criticized for curbing civil liberties and people are accustomed to tight controls, but there is still growing unease at intrusive tech.

The government's latest surveillance devices are robots on wheels, with seven cameras, that issue warnings to the public and detect "undesirable social behavior".

This includes smoking in prohibited areas, improperly parking bicycles, and breaching coronavirus social-distancing rules.

During a recent patrol, one of the "Xavier" robots wove its way through a housing estate and stopped in front of a group of elderly residents watching a chess match.

"Please keep one-meter distancing, please keep to five persons per group," a robotic voice blared out, as a camera on top of the machine trained its gaze on them.

During a three-week trial in September, two robots were deployed to patrol the housing estate and a shopping center.

"It reminds me of Robocop," said Frannie Teo, a 34-year-old research assistant, who was walking through the mall.

It brings to mind a "dystopian world of robots... I'm just a bit hesitant about that kind of concept", she added.

- 'No constraints' -
Digital rights activist Lee Yi Ting said the devices were the latest way Singaporeans were being watched.

"It all contributes to the sense people... need to watch what they say and what they do in Singapore to a far greater extent than they would in other countries," she told AFP.

But the government defended its use of robots, saying they were not being used to identify or take action against offenders during the tech's trial, and were needed to address a labor crunch as the population ages.

"The workforce is actually shrinking," said Ong Ka Hing, from the government agency that developed the Xavier robots, adding they could help reduce the number of officers needed for foot patrols.

The island of about 5.5 million people has 90,000 police cameras, a number set to double by 2030, and facial recognition tech -- which helps authorities pick out faces in a crowd -- may be installed on lampposts across the city.

There was a rare public backlash this year when authorities admitted coronavirus contract-tracing data collected by an official system had been accessed by police. The government later passed legislation to limit its use.

But critics say the city-state's laws generally put few limitations on government surveillance, and Singaporeans have little control over what happens to the data collected.

"There are no privacy law constraints on what the government can or cannot do," said Indulekshmi Rajeswari, a privacy lawyer from Singapore who is now based in Germany.



Nvidia and SoftBank Pilot World’s First AI and 5G Telecom Network

A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
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Nvidia and SoftBank Pilot World’s First AI and 5G Telecom Network

A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)
A smartphone with a displayed NVIDIA logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. (Reuters)

Leading chipmaker Nvidia and SoftBank Corp, the telecommunications arm of SoftBank Group, have piloted the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G telecoms network, the two companies said on Wednesday.

The network can run AI and 5G workloads concurrently, a process known as an artificial intelligence radio access network (AI-RAN), the companies said.

Applications for the network include autonomous vehicle remote support and robotics control.

"Every other telco will have to follow this new wave," SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son said at an AI event where he was speaking alongside Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Huang said SoftBank was the first to receive its new Blackwell chip designs, which it is incorporating into the AI supercomputer it is developing to create its own generative AI model.