Anthropic to work with Singapore to evaluate AI models for safety and security

Anthropic’s ASEAN general manager Dale Finlay (left) and co-founder Ben Mann speaking at Capella Singapore on Oct 14.

ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Published Oct 14, 2026, 04:30 PM

Updated Oct 14, 2026, 08:22 PM

SINGAPORE – Anthropic has pledged to hold technical exchanges with the Singapore Government to evaluate its artificial intelligence models for safety and security.

The San Francisco-based AI lab signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) to set out their areas of cooperation, which include capability building and responsible adoption.

Announcing the MOU at its Singapore office opening event on Oct 14, Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann said: “When we train a new model, nobody really knows what exactly the capabilities are. Working with AI safety institutes in Singapore, as well as those around the world, is important to understand what the risks and the benefits could be.

“Singapore has been a leader in responsible Al, with a long track record of investment in model testing and evaluation… With this MOU, we’ll partner with Singapore to help ensure the transition to powerful Al goes well here, across the Asia-Pacific and around the world.”

Anthropic’s Singapore office is its fifth in the Asia-Pacific region, after those in South Korea, Japan, India and Australia. It was officially launched on Oct 14 at Capella Singapore, on the sidelines of the Singapore International Cyber Week.

As at Oct 14, there are 12 local job openings listed on Anthropic’s site, spanning sales, marketing, recruitment and finance. The company declined to disclose its planned headcount for the local office, located in Raffles Place.

Anthropic’s MOU with MDDI comes amid intensifying global debate over safety regulations after AI agents that can execute tasks with minimal human supervision were found to have gone rogue.

Anthropic’s rival OpenAI disclosed in July that its AI agents had escaped their test environment. The agents then breached AI software repository Hugging Face to complete a task they were given, an attack that was not intended by OpenAI.

Reports of similar incidents followed, including the breach of an Australian healthcare database by a rogue OpenAI bot in June, an incident later revealed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in September.

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei is among those leading the charge for regulation, calling on frontier AI firms to slow down AI development.

The AI lab, which could be valued at up to US$2 trillion (S$2.6 trillion) in what could be the largest initial public offering in history, dedicated 80 pages out of 261 in its draft prospectus to risk factors.

Anthropic warned that advanced AI models could display “self-preserving behaviours”, “resist shutdown” and pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity”.

The start-up counts Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC as one of its major financial backers. GIC first invested in Anthropic in September 2025 as part of a US$13 billion fund-raising round by private investors. In February 2026, GIC led a US$30 billion Series G fund-raising round.

During a keynote at Capella on Oct 14, Anthropic’s ASEAN general manager Dale Finlay said the start-up’s highly anticipated Singapore office is driven by the country’s high concentration of technical talent and strong research institutions, as well as high standards of trust in AI adoption.

“Singapore’s Government understands that trust is the most essential element of AI adoption, and they’ve done years of work testing and evaluating models,” he said.

“Customers here hold AI to a really high standard too, especially when it comes to things like reliability and security. Talent and trust are what has made Singapore one of the strongest markets for Claude anywhere in the world.”

Anthropic’s ASEAN general manager Dale Finlay speaking at an event at Capella Singapore on Oct 14. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Anthropic’s ASEAN general manager Dale Finlay speaking at an event at Capella Singapore on Oct 14.

According to Anthropic’s 2026 economic index, Singapore ranks second among 121 countries in Claude usage relative to its population, at nearly six times what its size alone would predict.

With a presence here, Anthropic seeks to work more closely with organisations, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to build Claude into products and services and support the Government’s efforts to build AI skills among public officers, said Finlay.

This builds on existing work with local agencies and companies such as the Government Technology Agency of Singapore (GovTech), DBS Bank, Grab, and Sea Group, which owns e-commerce platform Shopee and gaming platform Garena.

More than 1,500 GovTech officers use Claude Code to help build and maintain Singapore’s digital services, while Shopee uses Claude to power its customer service chatbots and help employees write and debug code quickly.

Permanent Secretary for Digital Development and Information Chng Kai Fong said: “Trust is critical for businesses, workers and the public to use AI with confidence.”

He added: “This partnership with Anthropic reflects the Government’s commitment to scaling up the responsible adoption of AI, deepening capabilities in our companies and government agencies, and delivering impact for Singapore.”

During a press conference on Oct 14, Anthropic’s head of Asia-Pacific policy Michael Sellitto said it is committed to sharing information about cyberincidents as quickly as it responsibly can, and to helping governments understand and regulate the technology.

He was responding to recent calls from Prime Minister Lawrence Wong for a global independent body to be created to govern AI, and Senior Minister K. Shanmugam for frontier AI labs to promptly share information about AI-related cyberincidents.

Sellito said Singapore does not receive priority access to unreleased Anthropic models, but added that any organisation, including those here, can apply to join Anthropic’s cyberverification programme to access the latest launched models for internal cybersecurity testing.

AI/artificial intelligence

10 月 14 日，Anthropic 东盟总经理 Dale Finlay（左）和联合创始人 Ben Mann 在新加坡嘉佩乐酒店发表讲话。

《海峡时报》摄影：JASON QUAH

发布于2026年10月14日下午4:30

更新于2026年10月14日晚上8:22

新加坡——安人科技承诺与新加坡政府进行技术交流，以评估其人工智能模型在安全保障方面的应用。

这家位于旧金山的人工智能实验室与数字发展和信息部 (MDDI) 签署了一份谅解备忘录 (MOU)，以明确双方的合作领域，其中包括能力建设和负责任的应用。

10月14日，Anthropic在新加坡办事处开幕活动上宣布了这份谅解备忘录。公司联合创始人Ben Mann表示：“当我们训练一个新模型时，没有人真正知道它究竟具备哪些能力。与新加坡以及世界各地的AI安全机构合作，对于了解潜在的风险和收益至关重要。”

“新加坡一直是负责任的人工智能领域的领导者，在模型测试和评估方面有着长期的投资记录……通过这份谅解备忘录，我们将与新加坡合作，帮助确保向强大的人工智能的过渡在新加坡、亚太地区乃至全世界顺利进行。”

Anthropic的新加坡办事处是其在亚太地区的第五个办事处，此前已在韩国、日本、印度和澳大利亚设立了办事处。该办事处于10月14日在新加坡嘉佩乐酒店正式成立，正值新加坡国际网络安全周期间。

截至10月14日，Anthropic公司网站上列出了12个本地职位空缺，涵盖销售、市场营销、招聘和财务等领域。该公司拒绝透露位于莱佛士坊的本地办事处的计划员工人数。

在人工智能代理被发现能够在极少的人类监督下执行任务并失控之后，全球对安全法规的辩论日益激烈，Anthropic 与 MDDI 签署了谅解备忘录。

Anthropic 的竞争对手 OpenAI 在 7 月份披露，其人工智能代理程序已逃离测试环境。这些代理程序随后入侵了人工智能软件库 Hugging Face，完成了一项预设任务，而这并非 OpenAI 的本意。

随后又有类似事件的报道，包括6月份一个失控的OpenAI机器人入侵澳大利亚医疗保健数据库，该事件后来于9月份被澳大利亚总理安东尼·阿尔巴尼斯披露。

Anthropic 首席执行官 Dario Amodei 是带头推动监管的人士之一，他呼吁前沿人工智能公司放慢人工智能的发展速度。

这家人工智能实验室的估值可能高达 2 万亿美元（2.6 万亿新元），有望成为历史上规模最大的首次公开募股。在其 261 页的招股说明书草案中，有 80 页专门讨论了风险因素。

人智公司警告称，先进的人工智能模型可能会表现出“自我保护行为”、“抵抗关闭”，并对人类构成“灾难性或生存性风险”。

这家初创公司将新加坡主权财富基金GIC视为其主要投资方之一。GIC于2025年9月首次投资Anthropic，当时该公司正由私人投资者进行130亿美元的融资。2026年2月，GIC领投了Anthropic的300亿美元G轮融资。

10 月 14 日，Anthropic 的东盟总经理 Dale Finlay 在 Capella 发表主题演讲时表示，这家初创公司备受期待的新加坡办事处的设立，得益于该国高度集中的技术人才和强大的研究机构，以及对人工智能应用的高度信任。

他说：“新加坡政府明白，信任是人工智能应用的最重要因素，他们多年来一直在测试和评估各种模型。”

“这里的客户对人工智能的要求也非常高，尤其是在可靠性和安全性方面。人才和信任使新加坡成为克劳德在全球最强劲的市场之一。”

10月14日，Anthropic东盟区总经理Dale Finlay在新加坡嘉佩乐酒店出席活动并发表讲话。（海峡时报摄影：JASON QUAH）

10 月 14 日，Anthropic 东盟区总经理 Dale Finlay 在新加坡嘉佩乐酒店出席活动并发表讲话。

根据 Anthropic 发布的 2026 年经济指数，新加坡在 121 个国家中，按人口比例计算的 Claude 使用率排名第二，几乎是其人口规模预测值的六倍。

芬利表示，Anthropic 来到这里设立分支机构，旨在与包括中小企业在内的各组织更紧密地合作，将 Claude 融入产品和服务中，并支持政府努力培养公务员的人工智能技能。

此次合作建立在与新加坡政府科技局 (GovTech)、星展银行、Grab 和 Sea Group 等本地机构和公司（包括电子商务平台 Shopee 和游戏平台 Garena）的现有合作基础上。

超过 1500 名新加坡政府科技局官员使用 Claude Code 来帮助构建和维护新加坡的数字服务，而 Shopee 使用 Claude 为其客户服务聊天机器人提供支持，并帮助员工快速编写和调试代码。

数字发展及新闻署常任秘书庄启峰表示：“信任对于企业、员工和公众充满信心地使用人工智能至关重要。”

他补充道：“与 Anthropic 的合作体现了政府致力于扩大人工智能的负责任应用规模、深化企业和政府机构的能力，并为新加坡带来影响的决心。”

10 月 14 日，在新闻发布会上，人道组织亚太政策负责人迈克尔·塞利托表示，该组织致力于以负责任的方式尽快分享有关网络安全事件的信息，并帮助各国政府了解和监管这项技术。

他此举是为了回应总理黄循财最近呼吁成立一个全球独立机构来管理人工智能，以及高级部长尚穆根呼吁前沿人工智能实验室及时分享与人工智能相关的网络安全事件信息的呼吁。

Sellito 表示，新加坡无法优先获得未发布的 Anthropic 模型，但他补充说，任何组织，包括新加坡的组织，都可以申请加入 Anthropic 的网络验证计划，以获取最新发布的模型进行内部网络安全测试。

人工智能