Public Consultation for the Proposed Advisory Guidelines on Use of Personal Data in AI Recommendation and Decision Systems

On 18 July 2023, Singapore’s data protection authority published proposed guidelines on the use of personal data in artificial intelligence (AI) systems (Proposed Guidelines). The Proposed Guidelines will be up for public consultation until 31 August 2023, and they aim to address how Singapore’s privacy laws will apply to organizations that develop or deploy AI systems.

The Proposed Guidelines aim to (i) clarify how the Singapore Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2012, which regulates the collection and use of personal data in Singapore, applies to organizations that develop or deploy AI systems that use machine learning models to make decisions or to assist a human in making decisions (AI Systems); and (ii) provide guidance and best practices on ensuring that such AI Systems are operated in compliance with the PDPA.

The Proposed Guidelines cover three implementation stages of AI Systems:

1. The development, testing, and monitoring of an AI System (referred to in the Proposed Guidelines as “Development, Testing and Monitoring”); 
2. The deployment of an AI System by an organization in its products or services (referred to in the Proposed Guidelines as “Business Deployment”); and 
3. The provision of development and deployment support services for AI Systems by service providers (referred to in the Proposed Guidelines as “Service Providers”).

Interested parties may submit their views to the Personal Data Protection Commission by 31 August 2023, 12 (noon). Access the public consultation document can be found here. 

It seems that with this public consultation, Singapore will try to fit regulations and guidelines to AI Systems rather than provide a stand-alone regime while remaining close to the industry and to new regulations globally.