Latest news with #Singlish
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Straits Times
Our Singlish still got future or not? The kids will tell you
In Singapore, if you're feeling particularly pugnacious – itching to stir up some fuss at a stale dinner party, revive a fading family gathering, or jolt awake a sleepy WhatsApp group – you could always talk politics or food. Both reliably spark strong opinions, though admittedly they're a bit predictable. Here's something better: Singlish. Or more broadly, the colourful universe of Singaporeanisms – those uniquely local phrases, expressions and linguistic ticks we pinjam from everywhere: Malay, Hokkien, Teochew, Tamil. It's guaranteed to get everyone piping up; even the quiet ones have something to say. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
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.
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.
Independent Singapore
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Independent Singapore
Singaporeans give American in SG permission to use Singlish, even say it's ‘endearing'
SINGAPORE: A Reddit user from the United States who has been living in Singapore for some time now has found themselves using Singlish more or less inadvertently and took to the platform to ask whether it's offensive or not. Fortunately, many locals responding to the May 21 (Wednesday) post on r/askSingapore from u/M asteringTechSkills, said that it's all right, with a top comment even calling it 'endearing.' What can we say? While some nationalities can be less than welcoming when foreigners try to adapt linguistically, Singaporeans appear to be a more generous lot, at least in this aspect. The post author wrote that although they've been in Singapore for less than a year, they find that they're 'slipping Singlish, totally by accident.' 'Singlish is extremely contagious,' they added, going on to explain that they've used expressions such as 'Doctor can swish ah?' to a dentist and 'Can take cash, yeah?' to a cashier. While these phrases 'just slipped out,' the post author added that they do their best not to use Singlish. See also Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes dispel breakup rumours ' I do not want to come off as 'mocking' or a try-hard. I love and respect Singaporeans, but it is genuinely slipping off my tongue lately, as I assimilate into the society. Is what I said offensive? How would the average person feel about it? I want to assimilate and relate without offending,' they asked. Commenters were quick to put their fears to rest. 'It's okay la. I think people will secretly find it endearing,' was the top comment. 'If you do it with a mocking tone or demeanor, then yes offensive. If you do it because it's become natural, then it's endearing,' commented another. 'The fact that you got it down as reflexive responses probably meant that you're using Singlish right,' one chimed. Another agreed, writing, 'I actually find it quite cute leh!!! 😍 I think most Singaporeans would feel surprised at first but will soon be impressed with your ahs, lahs, lehs, and lors and hors!' They pointed out that although Singlish does not follow standard English grammar, it 'really rounds up a whole sentence into an efficiently short and understandable one (such as 'Why is John behaving this way?' to 'Y John like that ah?')' A commenter observed that 'Singlish is way easier to speak than standard English.' The post author agreed with this, writing, 'I agree! Straight to the point, very busy in SG lol.' 'Bro, if you speak Singlish, people will love you even more. Especially amongst the older generation who might find it difficult to understand a strong Western accent. If you spoke Singlish to my grandma, she will ask you to marry one of her granddaughters,' a Reddit user quipped. 'If anything, it's heartening to see the Singlish is subconsciously slipping through—it's one of the few things about SG that unites us all,' another commenter noted, adding, 'Don't worry about offending people. It's understated how much we appreciate people using our local slang as is. We get enough flak from all its root language native speakers on it not being 'correct'. (e.g., English speakers complaining about grammar, PRCs insisting we use Mandarin instead of dialect terms, etc., etc.).' /TISG Read also: 'Can or not?' — F1 drivers Charles Leclerc & Carlos Sainz rev up for 'Singlish Showdown' as they battle each other in Singapore English quiz
