EU landmark rules for ChatGPT give Singapore the blueprint to rein in AI harms: Experts

SINGAPORE – The European Union’s landmark move in late August to bring artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, online game Roblox and messaging platform Reddit under the bloc’s strictest rules for online safety is expected to give Singapore more evidence to rein in potential harms.

The European rules include adding age checks to prevent minors from being exposed to adult content such as pornography and gambling, and changing how systems recommend content to children to lower their risk of encountering harmful material.

The EU guidelines also spell out that children and teens’ online accounts be kept private by default to avoid them being contacted by strangers.

Dirk Hartung, an assistant professor at Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law, said that it becomes easier for Singapore lawmakers to also require similar measures here.

“Companies will have a hard time arguing that they cannot deploy the same tools to protect users in Singapore,” he said.

Experts said that developments in the United States also provide points of reference.

Earlier in August, Meta agreed to a settlement which included adding more safeguards for children and teenagers on Facebook and Instagram, such as limiting their daily use of the social media platforms and restricting children’s use at night.

“The measures being considered or implemented overseas – including age assurance, safer default settings and restrictions on potentially harmful design features – provide useful evidence that can inform Singapore’s own regulatory approach,” said Ben Chester Cheong, a lawyer at Rajah and Tann Singapore and a law lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Noting that many jurisdictions across the globe are also tightening safety measures, Hartung said regulators will step in where addiction, self-harm and other negative consequences for children’s well-being are accepted as part of online platforms’ business model.

Still, Cheong said that Singapore is already moving in a comparable direction as the EU in two areas of online safety.

The EU requires very large online services to assess and mitigate risks arising from their systems, including online harms from how a platform recommends, amplifies or delivers content. Similarly in Singapore, designated social media services must establish systems and processes to reduce exposing users to harmful material.

Measures in the EU to protect children, including age verification, are also moving forward in Singapore for social media.

Beyond EU and US rules, other measures Singapore could consider include holding online platforms to higher levels of transparency and accountability, such as disclosing their funding sources.

Samuel Yuen, managing director of Yuen Law, said that AI can be manipulated to drive fake news.

“Knowing the source of an AI platform’s funding allows us to understand if there are conflicts of interest between a funder and how an AI is used,” he said, such as a biased AI that gives only positive replies about a funder.

Hartung added that making it clear to users that they are interacting with AI chatbots is helpful so they are not tricked into thinking they are engaging with a real person instead of a machine.

But the Singapore Government is unlikely to follow EU and US measures to a tee. Instead, Cheong said that the Republic will likely assess overseas evidence on online harms alongside Singapore’s own experience and adopt measures that are commensurate with the risks here.

Yuen said that this means developing Singapore’s own response, according to its cultural values, economic realities and national interests.

“The key is about finding an approach and framework to cast our own net. But I believe our lawmakers will move at the speed of necessity,” he said.

Agreeing, Cheong said that Singapore can move quickly once a risk is sufficiently established.

He cited how in April, Singapore required app stores to screen and block users under 18 from downloading apps not meant for their age. Also, in June, the Republic’s Online Safety Commission began operations to help victims of online harms seek redress through content takedown orders.

In early 2027, changes are expected to require social media platforms here to enforce safety features through age checks.

While the EU typically takes a stricter stance on public safety and privacy, Goh Kim Huat, a professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School, said that Singapore tends to take an approach that “calibrates the needs of businesses while safeguarding the interest of individuals”.

Said Cheong: “This balance between trust, safety and innovation has been a consistent feature of Singapore’s approach to digital and AI governance.”

“Singapore’s broader approach is to allow innovation to develop while continually updating safeguards as evidence develops,” he added.