SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Lim Chong Kin, Drew & Napier LLC
disable access by Singapore users to such con - tent during election periods. Fake News The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) was enacted to pre - vent the electronic communication in Singa - pore of false statements of fact, amongst other things. Notably, Section 8 of POFMA prohibits the making or alteration of an automated com - puter program (ie, an AI “bot”) with the intention of using it to communicate or enabling any other person to communicate a false statement of fact in Singapore. Data Protection The collection and use of large data sets for big data analytics, machine learning and AI may trig - ger data protection concerns, especially where such data sets involve personal data (see 2.1 Highly Regulated Industries and Data Protec- tion for the definition of personal data). Moreo - ver, it is not uncommon for AI systems to utilise data mining solutions to obtain data from third- party sources, in some cases without having obtained consent from the individual affected. Another significant data protection challenge is the increasing ease with which researchers can re-identify individuals from previously pseu - donymised or anonymised data sets by match - ing them against publicly available information or other data sets. Intellectual Property It remains unclear whether and how existing intellectual property frameworks may be applied in protecting AI-generated works. Under Singa - pore copyright law, the creative elements of a work must be attributable to a natural person in order for copyright protection to vest.
However, AI-related inventions may be patent - able. In April 2019, the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) launched an Accel - erated Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) scheme, under which AI-related patent applica - tions may be granted on an accelerated basis if various conditions are satisfied – most notably, the application must be an AI invention. In addi - tion, under the Patents Act 1994, in order for an invention to be patentable, it must be new, involve an inventive step, and be capable of industrial application. Furthermore, the CA, which came into force on 21 November 2021, includes a new exception to copyright infringement for the purpose of com - putational data analysis (regardless of whether commercial or non-commercial). This exception allows inventors to use lawfully accessed data in their AI machines for computational data analy - sis, under certain conditions, without the fear of being liable for copyright infringement. 4. Internet of Things 4.1 Machine-to-Machine Communications, Communications Secrecy and Data Protection Singapore has not enacted any laws that specifi - cally govern the internet of things (IoT), but cer - tain existing laws and regulations may apply to various aspects of IoT projects or applications. Telecommunications The IMDA, as established under the Info-com - munications Media Development Authority Act 2016 (IMDA Act), is responsible for regulating the telecommunications sector in Singapore, amongst others, pursuant to its exclusive privi - lege under the Telecommunications Act 1999 (TA).
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