Budget 2026 debate: Dennis Tan on a just green transition amid AI wave
The Budget proposes to accelerate the development of AI, establish a National AI Council and launch multiple industry AI programmes but the energy consumption and carbon emission of generative AI are growing very rapidly. MP Dennis Tan, who raised this concern in parliament on Tuesday (Feb 24), urged the government to encourage the development of more energy-efficient small AI and specific-purpose models rather than uniformly using large general-purpose models across the board. Singapore cannot become a destination for high-energy workload transfers and should require large AI companies to disclose energy data to protect the interests of the national grid and taxpayers, whilst promoting digital transformation, he said.
The Budget proposes to accelerate the development of AI, establish a National AI Council and launch multiple industry AI programmes but the energy consumption and carbon emission of generative AI are growing very rapidly. MP Dennis Tan, who raised this concern in parliament on Tuesday (Feb 24), urged the government to encourage the development of more energy-efficient small AI and specific-purpose models rather than uniformly using large general-purpose models across the board. Singapore cannot become a destination for high-energy workload transfers and should require large AI companies to disclose energy data to protect the interests of the national grid and taxpayers, whilst promoting digital transformation, he said.
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