Latest news with #Meralion
New Paper
28-05-2025
- Business
- New Paper
Singlish-savvy national AI chatbot can check in on seniors, intercept scam calls
Artificial intelligence agents trained to speak in English, local mother tongue languages, and even Singlish, may soon be deployed to call elderly patients or seniors to check in on how they are doing, or at anti-scam centres to intercept suspicious calls. "I've been told (the chatbot) can also handle non-verbal cues such as the speaker's volume, emotion and tone," said Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo, unveiling the chatbot on May 28 at the Asia Tech x Singapore conference held at Capella Singapore. Called Meralion (short for Multimodal Empathetic Reasoning and Learning in One Network), the chatbot can understand at least eight regional languages such as English, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, Thai and Singlish - Singapore's unique take on English which fuses regional languages. Meralion, which is developed by the A*Star Institute for Infocomm Research, is available for the public to install for free to adapt for their use. Talks are also under way with a social service agency to deploy the chatbot. For instance, Meralion can help social workers ring seniors to remind them to take their medication. The AI program, which works autonomously, can also check in on the seniors' well-being, analysing their tone and dialogue for signs of sadness or anger that might require closer attention from human staff. The chatbot will generate a summary of the call, detailing the senior's needs and well-being. Meralion's development is part of a $70 million initiative funded by the National Research Foundation and Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which aims to build large language models tailored for the region. The fund has also backed AI Singapore's Sea-Lion (South-east Asian Languages in One Network) model, which is trained on at least 11 major languages used in the region. The Meralion chatbot fills a gap for locally attuned language models as most current AI systems are trained largely on Western data, said Dr Lawrence Wee, director of business and ecosystems at IMDA's BizTech Group. As a result, chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini that dominate the fast-growing AI field may often stumble over local dialects, communication styles and nuances, so deploying them here often requires extensive retraining on regional data. Meralion, which is trained on the national speech corpus, understands when multiple languages are spoken in the same sentence, reflecting how people in the region naturally communicate. It can also detect emotional tone to enable more empathetic interactions with the chatbot, said IMDA and A*Star. They added that in future updates, Meralion is being trained to understand Chinese dialects. Mrs Teo, who is Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, said the Meralion chatbot can serve the needs of more than 450 million people in the region who use these languages. In a demonstration on May 26, the media was shown how Meralion can be deployed in eldercare and anti-scam efforts. The social services AI bot asked the caller how he was feeling and understood his Singlish reply, which included a lament on his early start to the day: "I wake up at 6 and make my kopi-o" (black coffee). The bot responded in Singlish: "Aiyoh, so sayang... Hope your kopi-o helped. Have you eaten? Remember to take care of yourself, okay?" For more severe concerns such as body aches, the bot can give basic advice, such as to rest or to ice bruises. Urgent cases can be flagged directly to social workers, depending on how the program is implemented. Axiom IT Solutions, which is using Meralion to develop new AI apps, is in talks with a social service agency, which it did not identify, to deploy the AI chatbot for eldercare. In a separate demonstration, Meralion was used to screen likely scam calls to prevent scammers from reaching victims over the phone. If a call seems suspicious, Meralion answers, identifies itself as an AI assistant, and asks the caller to state his or her purpose. The bot assesses the purpose of the call before deciding whether to let the call through or to block it. Meralion can also block calls made by bots, often used by scammers to target victims en masse. It is yet to be seen how potential clients will implement the technology. Telcos might employ it to screen suspicious calls before they reach users who opt in for the security service, or as an app to filter calls, said Mr Lam Pang Ngean, business development director at Axiom IT Solutions, which is among Meralion's users using the platform to create apps for potential clients. An earlier version of Meralion has been downloaded more than 90,000 times by start-ups, research labs and academics, among other users, since it was rolled out as an open-source tool last December. Speaking to several hundred tech policymakers, researchers and industry guests in attendance at the conference, Mrs Teo said: "Furthermore, (Meralion's latest version) understands sentences containing a mix of languages, which is common in multicultural societies." "It's very unusual for us to complete a whole sentence using just one language," she said, adding that there are more than 1,200 languages and dialects in South-east Asia. Meralion follows in the footsteps of Sea-Lion, another large language model designed to reflect local cultures. The open-source Sea-Lion software has been installed more than 200,000 times, said Mrs Teo, adding that the interest in a regionally attuned model indicated a demand for a new AI program capable of understanding speech, text and other modes of communication. Organised by IMDA, the ATxSG conference, held from May 27 to 29, is expected to host 3,500 attendees from around the world who will attend panels and discussions on AI governance and innovation in the technology sector. Executives from major tech companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are also scheduled to attend panel discussions that address pressing issues in tech. Mrs Teo also announced the Meralion Consortium, which comprises 12 member organisations including DBS Bank, the Ministry of Health's Office for Healthcare Transformation and ST Engineering. It will work with Meralion's developers to refine the AI model so that it can be used by member companies and their sectors. The consortium will focus on multilingual customer support, analysing speech and text for emotional cues to support well-being and care and to improve the AI's decision-making ability by factoring in cultural contexts. Microsoft, one of the consortium's members, is working with A*Star on how Meralion can be woven into its suite of office tools. SPH Media, which publishes The Straits Times, is also exploring ways to use Meralion to support AI apps in user experience and customer service tools, said chief operating officer Loh Yuh Yiing.
Business Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
New initiatives to facilitate cross-border data transfer and multimodal AI model Meralion
[SINGAPORE] New initiatives to facilitate cross-border data transfer and artificial intelligence (AI) safety were among the slew of announcements by the Infocomm and Media Authority of Singapore on Wednesday (May 28). A new Global Cross-Border Privacy Rules (CBPR) certification was announced, which would give businesses certainty in international data transfers. The certification would show compliance with internationally recognised data protection standards. This new certification is built on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) CBPR certification. OCBC is among the 100 Apec CBPR-certified organisations expected to benefit. At the start, the global CBPR certification will give access to nine economies – US, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, Philippines, Chinese Taipei and Mexico. The global CBPR certification will take effect on Jun 2. 'Robust safeguards and a uniform framework for personal data across borders are crucial for secure and efficient data flows,' said Loretta Yuen, head of group legal and compliance, OCBC. A new version of a multimodal large language model developed by A*Star – Multimodal Empathetic Reasoning and Learning in One Network (Meralion) – was also launched on Wednesday. Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo announced that a consortium for Meralion will be established in a speech at ATX Singapore. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) will partner companies such as DBS, Grab, ST Engineering, NCS, SPH Media Trust as well as the Ministry of Health to harness expertise in the ecosystem, share learnings and accelerate adoption,' she said. Meralion can understand emotions, context and intent across South-east Asia's multiple languages and cultures such as English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, Bahasa Indonesia, Thai and Vietnamese. Version one was downloaded more than 90,000 times since its launch in December 2024. 'Understanding local nuance, context and culture isn't just a technical challenge – it's a human one,' said Bidyut Dumra, group head of innovation, DBS. The consortium will priorities three areas: Multilingual customers support: enabling seamless natural communication across languages and dialects Health and emotional insight detection: analysing speech and text for emotional cues Agentic decision-making: making AI agents aware of context and cultural sensitivity The consortium will aggregate demand and reduce costs, while sharing data and technical insights to improve Meralion's performance. Tools, training and developer resources will be built to accelerate implementation, and consortium members will develop real-world proof-of-concepts together for deployment. 'As a news media company, we recognise the importance of embracing technologies that can enhance user experience, and in so doing allow us to reach and engage audiences more effectively,' said Loh Yuh Yiing, chief operating officer of SPH Media.
The Star
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Singlish-savvy Singapore AI chatbot can check in on seniors, intercept scam calls
SINGAPORE: Artificial intelligence agents trained to speak in English, local mother-tongue languages and even Singlish may soon be deployed to call elderly patients or seniors to check in on how them are doing, or in anti-scam centres to intercept suspicious calls. 'I've been told (the chatbot) can also handle non-verbal cues such as the speaker's volume, emotion, tone,' said Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo, unveiling the chatbot on Wednesday (May 28) at the Asia Tech x Singapore conference. Called Meralion (short for Multimodal Empathetic Reasoning and Learning in One Network), the chatbot can understand at least eight regional languages such as English, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, Thai and Singlish - Singapore's unique take on English which fuses regional languages. Meralion, which is developed by A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), is available for the public to install for free to adapt for their uses. Its developers are also in talks with a social service agency to deploy the chatbot, and are refining the program for use in scam detection. For instance, Meralion can help social workers ring seniors to remind them to take their medication. The AI program, which works autonomously, can also check in on the seniors' well-being, analysing their tone and dialogue for signs of sadness or anger that might require closer attention from human staff members. The chatbot will generate a summary of the call, detailing the senior's needs and well-being. Meralion's development is part of a S$70 million initiative funded by the National Research Foundation and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which aims to build large language models tailored for the region. The fund has also backed AI Singapore's Sea-Lion (South-east Asian Languages in One Network) model, which is trained on at least 11 major languages used in the region. The Meralion chatbot fills a gap for locally-attuned language models as most current AI systems are trained largely on Western data, said Dr Lawrence Wee, director of business and ecosystems at IMDA's BizTech Group. As a result, chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini that dominate the fast-growing AI field can often stumble over local dialects, communication styles and nuances, so deploying them here often requires extensive retraining on regional data. Meralion, trained on the national speech corpus, understands when multiple languages are spoken in the same sentence, reflecting how people in the region naturally communicate. Meralion can also detect emotional tone to enable more empathetic interactions with the chatbot, said IMDA and A*Star. They added that Meralion is being trained to understand Chinese dialects in future updates. Teo, who is Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, said that the Meralion chatbot can serve the needs of more than 450 million people in the region who use these languages. In a demonstration on May 26, the media was shown how Meralion can be deployed in eldercare and anti-scam efforts. The social services AI bot asked the caller how he was feeling and understood his Singlish reply, which included a lament on his early start to the day: 'I wake up at 6 and make my kopi-o' (local black coffee). The bot responded in Singlish: 'Aiyoh, so sayang... Hope your kopi-o helped. Have you eaten? Remember to take care of yourself, okay?' For more severe concerns such as body aches, the bot can give basic advice, such as to rest or ice bruises. Urgent cases can be flagged directly to social workers, depending on how the program is implemented. Dr Wee said Meralion's developers are in talks with a social service agency, which it did not identify, to deploy the AI chatbot for eldercare. In a separate demonstration, Meralion was used to screen likely scam calls to prevent scammers from reaching victims over the phone. If a call seems suspicious, Meralion answers, identifies itself as an AI assistant and asks the caller to state their purpose. The bot assesses the purpose of the call before deciding whether to let the call through or to block it. Meralion can also block calls made by bots, often used by scammers to target victims en masse. It is yet to be seen how potential clients will implement the technology. Telcos might employ it to screen suspicious calls before they reach users who opt in for the security service, or as an app to filter calls, said Lam Pang Ngean, business development director at Axion IT Solutions, which is working with A*Star bring Meralion to potential clients. An earlier version of Meralion has been downloaded more than 90,000 times by start-ups, research labs and academics, among other users, since it was rolled out as an open-source tool in December 2024. 'Furthermore, (Meralion's latest version) understands sentences containing a mix of languages, which is common in multi-cultural societies,' said Teo, speaking to several hundred tech policymakers, researchers and industry guests in attendance at Capella in Sentosa. 'It's very unusual for us to complete a whole sentence using just one language,' she said, adding that there were more than 1,200 languages and dialects in South-East Asia. Meralion follows the footsteps of Sea-Lion, another large language model designed to reflect local cultures. The open-source Sea-Lion software has been installed more than 200,000 times, said Teo, adding that the interest in a regionally attuned model indicated a demand for a new AI program capable of understanding speech, text and other modes of communication. Organised by IMDA, the ATxSG conference is expected to host 3,500 attendees from around the world who will attend panels and discussions on AI governance and innovation in the technology sector between May 27 and 29. Executives from major tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are also scheduled to attend panel discussions that address pressing issues in tech. Teo announced the Meralion Consortium, which launches with 12 member organisations including DBS Bank, the Ministry of Health and ST Engineering, to with Meralion's developers to refine the AI model so that they can be used by member companies and their sectors. The consortium will focus on multilingual customer support, analysing speech and text for emotional cues to support wellbeing and care and to improve AI's decision-making ability by factoring cultural contexts. The members include Microsoft, which is working with A*Star on how Meralion can be woven into its suite of office tools. SPH Media, which runs The Straits Times, is also exploring ways to use Meralion to support AI apps in user experience and customer service tools, said chief operating officer Loh Yuh Yiing. - The Straits Times/ANN
Straits Times
28-05-2025
- Straits Times
Singlish-savvy national AI chatbot can check in on seniors, intercept scam calls
Meralion is available for the public to install for free to adapt for their uses. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO SINGAPORE – A rtificial intelligence agents trained to speak in English, local mother-tongue languages and even Singlish may soon be deployed to call elderly patients or seniors to check in on how them are doing, or in anti-scam centres to intercept suspicious calls. 'I've been told (the chatbot) can also handle non-verbal cues such as the speaker's volume, emotion, tone,' said Digital Development and Information Minister Josephine Teo, unveiling the chatbot on May 28 at the Asia Tech x Singapore conference. Called Meralion (short for Multimodal Empathetic Reasoning and Learning in One Network), the chatbot can understand at least eight regional languages such as English, Mandarin, Tamil, Malay, Thai and Singlish - Singapore's unique take on English which fuses regional languages. Meralion, which is developed by A*Star ( Agency for Science, Technology and Research), is available for the public to install for free to adapt for their uses. Its developers are also in talks with a social service agency to deploy the chatbot, and are refining the program for use in scam detection. For instance, Meralion can help social workers ring seniors to remind them to take their medication. The AI program, which works autonomously, can also check in on the seniors' well-being, analysing their tone and dialogue for signs of sadness or anger that might require closer attention from human staff members. The chatbot will generate a summary of the call, detailing the senior's needs and well-being. Meralion's development is part of a $70 million initiative funded by the National Research Foundation and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which aims to build large language models tailored for the region. The fund has also backed AI Singapore's Sea-Lion (South-east Asian Languages in One Network) model, which is trained on at least 11 major languages used in the region. The Meralion chatbot fills a gap for locally-attuned language models as most current AI systems are trained largely on Western data, said Dr Lawrence Wee, director of business and ecosystems at IMDA's BizTech Group. As a result, chatbots like ChatGPT and Google Gemini that dominate the fast-growing AI field can often stumble over local dialects, communication styles and nuances, so deploying them here often requires extensive retraining on regional data. Meralion, trained on the national speech corpus, understands when multiple languages are spoken in the same sentence, reflecting how people in the region naturally communicate . Meralion can also detect emotional tone to enable more empathetic interactions with the chatbot, said IMDA and A*Star. They added that Meralion is being trained to understand Chinese dialects in future updates. Mrs Teo, who is Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity, said that the Meralion chatbot can serve the needs of more than 450 million people in the region who use these languages. In a demonstration on May 26, the media was shown how Meralion can be deployed in eldercare and anti-scam efforts. The social services AI bot asked the caller how he was feeling and understood his Singlish reply, which included a lament on his early start to the day: 'I wake up at 6 and make my kopi-o ' (local black coffee). The bot responded in Singlish: 'Aiyo h , so sayang... Hope your kopi-o helped. Have you eaten? Remember to take care of yourself, okay?' For more severe concerns such as body aches, the bot can give basic advice, such as to rest or ice bruises. Urgent cases can be flagged directly to social workers, depending on how the program is implemented. Dr Wee said Meralion's developers are in talks with a social service agency, which it did not identify, to deploy the AI chatbot for eldercare . In a separate demo nstration , Meralion was used to screen likely scam calls to prevent scammers from reaching victims over the phone. If a call seems suspicious, Meralion answers, identifies itself as an AI assistant and asks the caller to state their purpose. The bot assesses the purpose of the call before deciding whether to let the call through or to block it. Meralion can also block calls made by bots, often used by scammers to target victims en masse. It is yet to be see n how potential clients will implement the technology. Telcos might employ it to screen suspicious calls before they reach users who opt in for the security service, or as an app to filter calls , said Mr Lam Pang Ngean, business development director at Axion IT Solutions, which is working with A*Star bring Meralion to potential clients. An earlier version of Meralion has been downloaded more than 90,000 times by start-ups , research labs and academics, among other users, since it was rolled out as an open-source tool in December 2024. 'Furthermore, (Meralion's latest version) understands sentences containing a mix of languages, which is common in multi-cultural societies,' said Mrs Teo, speaking to several hundred tech policymakers, researchers and industry guests in attendance at Capella in Sentosa. 'It's very unusual for us to complete a whole sentence using just one language,' she said, adding that there were more than 1,200 languages and dialects in South-east Asia. Meralion follows the footsteps of Sea-Lion, another large language model designed to reflect local cultures. The open-source Sea-Lion software has been installed more than 200,000 times, said Mrs Teo, adding that the interest in a regionally attuned model indicated a demand for a new AI program capable of understanding speech, text and other modes of communication. Organised by IMDA, the ATxSG conference is expected to host 3,500 attendees from around the world who will attend panels and discussions on AI governance and innovation in the technology sector between May 27 and 29. Executives from major tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are also scheduled to attend panel discussions that address pressing issues in tech. Mrs Teo announced the Meralion Consortium, which launches with 12 member organisations including DBS Bank, the Ministry of Health and ST Engineering, to with Meralion's developers to refine the AI model so that they can be used by member companies and their sectors. The consortium will focus on multilingual customer support, analysing speech and text for emotional cues to support wellbeing and care and to improve AI's decision-making ability by factoring cultural contexts. The members include Microsoft, which is working with A*Star on how Meralion can be woven into its suite of office tools. SPH Media, which runs The Straits Times, is also exploring ways to use Meralion to support AI apps in user experience and customer service tools, said chief operating officer Loh Yuh Yiing. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
