Biography
Dr Bernice Khoo is concurrent Director, Technology Office, and Director (Research), National AI Group (NAIG) at the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) where she oversees the progress of the Smart Nation Digital Economy Research Innovation Enterprise (SNDE RIE) plans and the implementation of Funding Initiatives for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Online Trust and Safety.
For AI, Singapore had invested in AI through AI Singapore (AISG) since 2017. In December 2023, then-DPM Wong had launched National AI Strategy (NAIS) 2.0, which articulated 3 activity drivers and 7 enablers to realise the transformative potential of AI. The NAIG Research-team at MDDI oversees the development and update of the National AI R&D (NAIRD) Plan to chart the next bound initiatives for AI R&D in Singapore. For Online Trust and Safety, the Technology Office at MDDI oversees the OTS Funding Initiative, and the Centre of Advanced Technologies in Online Safety (CATOS) hosted at A*STAR, which seeks to build capabilities and technologies to combat online harms, including misinformation and deepfakes.
Prior to joining MDDI, Dr Khoo was the Programme Director of the Social and Behavioural Science Programme at DSO National Laboratories. At DSO, she developed the 5-year Social and Behavioural Sciences Research and Technology (R&T) roadmap (2018 – 2023) and led multidisciplinary teams comprising social and behavioural scientists, machine learning/artificial intelligence scientists and software engineers to develop advanced analytics and AI in large-scale multi-year projects. Dr Khoo has a PhD in Social Psychology, and her research examines potential vulnerabilities and protective factors against disinformation and terrorism in the digital environment.