AI双语新加坡 AI Bilingual Singapore

 

“Bilingual”这个词，对新加坡人并不陌生。

几十年来，双语教育不仅是一项教育政策，也塑造了新加坡人的生活经验：英语让人进入全球网络，母语维系文化、家庭与身份。一个人能够在两种语言之间转换，也意味着能够在不同知识系统和文化语境之间移动。

到了AI时代，新加坡开始谈一种新的“双语”。

2026年，新加坡推出“全国人工智能影响计划”（National AI Impact Programme），提出未来三年协助一万家企业深化AI应用，同时支持十万名工作者成为 “AI Bilingual”。所谓“AI双语”，不是会说两种自然语言——母语和英语，而是既熟悉自己的专业领域，又能够理解和运用AI，把AI真正带进工作流程。首批重点包括会计、法律等非科技专业，随后还将扩展到其他领域。

数码发展及新闻部长杨莉明今年谈到“AI Bilinguals”时特别指出，这个比喻之所以容易被新加坡人理解，正因为多数新加坡人都是接受双语教育。她把一个人的专业知识比作自己的母语，而AI则像需要重新学习的另一种语言。

这个比喻比“必须学习AI”有意思得多，也非常“新加坡派”。

学一门语言，从来不只是背几个单词；真正的双语，也不是知道两套词汇，而是知道在什么时候说什么、怎样理解对方、怎样转换语境。同样地，AI双语也不等于会打开ChatGPT、写几个提示词。一个律师必须先懂法律，一个教师必须先懂教育，一个医生必须先懂医学；AI能力的意义，是让原有的专业判断获得新的工具，而不是让工具取代专业判断。

新加坡为什么此刻如此强调这种能力？数字让我们一目了然。

2023年，新加坡只有4.2%的中小企业采用AI；到了2024年，这一比例已经升到14.5%，一年增长超过三倍。大型企业同期也从44%升至62.5%。与此同时，2024年新加坡数字经济规模达到1281亿新元，占GDP的18.6%。AI显然正在从少数科技公司的实验室，进入越来越普通的企业。

更值得注意的是人。新加坡资讯通信媒体发展局（IMDA）调查显示，73.8%的受访工作者已经在工作中使用AI；其中58%用于构思与头脑风暴，54%用于写作与编辑。AI最先进入的，恰恰不是科幻电影里的机器人岗位，而是我们每天都在做的思考、写作、沟通和整理。

这也解释了为什么“AI双语”比“AI专家”更值得推动。

新加坡不是要求十万人都变成程序员，而是希望十万人在自己的专业里学会“说AI”。杨莉明举过一个很好的例子：投资经理可以利用AI检验投资判断，但最后作决定的仍然是人。她特别强调，AI应用的目的不是让人替AI工作，而是让AI为人工作。

人力部的数据也说明，目前AI带来的主要变化并不是大规模裁员。2026年的调查中，28.5%的企业已经采用AI；其中只有6.2%报告减少人手或招聘，反而有18.9%重新设计工作内容，13.9%创造新的AI相关岗位，70.7%表示员工生产力提高。换句话说，眼下更明显的不是“职业消失”，而是职业正在重新书写自己的语法。

语言会改变人的思考方式，工具也会。

过去，新加坡的双语教育训练人们在不同语言和文化之间转换；今天，“AI双语”又提出一种新的转换能力：在人的专业知识与机器能力之间往返，在效率与判断之间保持距离，在接受AI帮助的同时，仍然知道什么时候应该怀疑它。

所以，我觉得“AI双语”真正值得认可的，不是这个新名词有多时髦，而是它重新思考了这个老问题：“一个人要用什么语言和技能，才能记忆以往，面对未来的世界？”

在新加坡，答案是：“AI双语”。

 

2026年8月29日新加坡《联合早报》“上善若水”专栏

 

AI Bilingual Singapore

I Lo-fen

The word “bilingual” is hardly unfamiliar to Singaporeans.

For decades, bilingual education has been more than an educational policy; it has also shaped the lived experience of Singaporeans. English connects people to global networks, while their Mother Tongue sustains culture, family ties, and identity. To be able to move between two languages is also to move between different systems of knowledge and cultural contexts.

In the age of AI, Singapore has begun speaking of a new kind of “bilingualism.”

In 2026, Singapore launched the National AI Impact Programme (NAIIP), which aims over the next three years to help 10,000 enterprises deepen their adoption of AI, while supporting 100,000 workers to become “AI Bilingual.” An “AI Bilingual” is not someone who speaks two natural languages—English and a Mother Tongue—but someone who is both well versed in a professional domain and able to understand and apply AI, integrating it meaningfully into actual workflows. The initial focus is on non-tech professions such as accountancy and law, with other fields to follow.

When Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo spoke this year about “AI Bilinguals,” she pointed out that the metaphor is intuitively easy for Singaporeans to understand precisely because most Singaporeans are products of bilingual education. She compared a person’s domain expertise to one language and AI to another language that must be learned. 

The metaphor is far more interesting than simply saying that “everyone must learn AI.” It is also very Singaporean.

Learning a language has never been merely a matter of memorising a few words. True bilingualism does not mean knowing two sets of vocabulary; it means knowing what to say, when to say it, how to understand the other party, and how to move between contexts. In the same way, being AI bilingual does not simply mean knowing how to open ChatGPT and write a few prompts. A lawyer must first understand law, a teacher must first understand education, and a doctor must first understand medicine. The value of AI capability lies in giving professional judgement new tools, rather than allowing tools to replace professional judgement.

Why is Singapore placing such emphasis on this capability at this particular moment? The numbers make the answer clear.

In 2023, only 4.2 per cent of Singapore’s small and medium-sized enterprises had adopted AI. By 2024, the figure had risen to 14.5 per cent—more than tripling in a single year. Among larger enterprises, adoption rose over the same period from 44 per cent to 62.5 per cent. Meanwhile, Singapore’s digital economy reached S$128.1 billion in 2024, accounting for 18.6 per cent of GDP. AI is clearly moving out of the laboratories of a small number of technology companies and into increasingly ordinary businesses.

Even more striking is what is happening among workers. A survey by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) found that 73.8 per cent of surveyed working individuals were already using AI tools at work. Among these AI users, 58 per cent used AI for brainstorming and ideation, while 54 per cent used it for writing and editing. The first areas AI has entered are not the robotic jobs imagined in science-fiction films, but precisely the thinking, writing, communicating, and organising that we do every day.

This also explains why promoting “AI Bilinguals” matters more than trying to turn everyone into an “AI expert.”

Singapore is not asking 100,000 people to become programmers. It wants 100,000 people to learn how to “speak AI” within their own professions. Josephine Teo has offered a useful example: a portfolio manager can use AI to sharpen an investment thesis and stress-test positions, but the final decision remains with the human professional. She has also emphasised that AI implementation is not simply about getting humans to make AI work; it is about getting AI to work in support of humans.

Data from the Ministry of Manpower likewise suggest that the main effect of AI at present is not large-scale job displacement. In its 2026 survey, 28.5 per cent of firms had begun adopting AI. Only 6.2 per cent of AI-adopting firms reported reductions in headcount, while 18.9 per cent had redesigned roles, 13.9 per cent had created new AI-related jobs, and 70.7 per cent reported improvements in worker productivity. In other words, what is most visible at the moment is not the disappearance of occupations, but occupations rewriting their own grammar.

Language changes the way people think. Tools do too.

In the past, Singapore’s bilingual education trained people to move between different languages and cultures. Today, “AI bilingualism” proposes another kind of ability to switch: moving back and forth between human professional knowledge and machine capability, maintaining a distance between efficiency and judgement, and knowing when to question AI even while accepting its assistance.

That is why, to me, what is truly worth recognising about “AI Bilingual” is not how fashionable the new term sounds, but the way it reopens an old question: What languages and skills must a person possess in order to remember the past and face the world of the future?

In Singapore, the answer is:AI Bilingual.

29 August 2026, “Shang Shan Ruo Shui” column, Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore.