AI Fireside Chat - The Biggest Names - The Hottest Topics
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Fireside Chat: SG, ASEAN and Age of AI
Connect with industry leaders and hear from prominent US-based Singaporeans in intimate conversations about culture, innovation, entrepreneurship, and community. Topics include: Born in Singapore, Building the Future: From Silicon Valley to the World, From Ports to Digital Ports: Singapore, ASEAN, and the Age of AI and more. Featured speakers include Andrew Ng, AI pioneer, Google Brain founding lead, and DeepLearning.AI founder; Jerene Yang, OpenAI’s Head of Runtime Engineering; Chade-Meng Tan, mindfulness leader and bestselling author; Anthony Chow, Igloo founder and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and many more.
The AI fireside chat will run in two panels:
The first panel “Born in Singapore, Building the Future: From Silicon Valley to the World” will be moderated by Professor Ahmed Amer of Santa Clara University.
The second panel “From Ports to Digital Ports: Singapore, Public Infrastructure & the Age of AI” will be moderated by Mei Lin Fung Vice Chair, UN AI for Good Impact Steering Committee.
Panel 1
“Born in Singapore, Building the Future: From Silicon Valley to the World”
Each panelist’s story shows how Singapore’s culture of collective intelligence, grit, and investment in people produces leaders who are shaping AI, finance, education, and entrepreneurship globally. The format highlights personal journeys, moments of risk, and lessons for the future.
Jerene Yang – Synthetic data generation lead at OpenAI, powering ChatGPT and AI infrastructure
Rachael Annabelle Yong – Founder of Gullie, reinventing global relocation with AI
Chaochao Zuo, CFA – Product Director of Trust & Safety at Affirm, ex-Goldman, Capital One, Visa; fintech + AI risk expert
Professor Ahmed Amer - Associate professor of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University, Emerging Issues Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics- Interests include the intersection of technology and society, and in particular the ethical and social issues
Be inspired by the personal journeys of Singaporeans shaping the world, proud of Singapore’s role in Silicon Valley and beyond, and curious about how Singapore + California can lead in the age of digital public infrastructure and AI.
Panel 2
From Ports to Digital Ports: Singapore, Public Infrastructure & the Age of AI Singapore’s success has always rested on bold investments in its people and infrastructure. From the Central Provident Fund that mobilized national savings, to SkillsFuture’s $5B commitment to lifelong learning, to world-class transport, housing, and education systems, Singapore has built prosperity through deliberate, future-focused choices. The nation also became home to PSA International, the world’s largest port operator, proof that infrastructure can power a small country to global significance. Now can communities around the world learn from the success of smart choices in infrastructure to unleash opportunity - as happened in Singapore?
Now, in the age of AI, the next wave of infrastructure is digital public infrastructure (DPI) — the “digital ports” where data, trust, and finance will flow. MSMEs form the economic backbone for many regions, California and beyond - can DPI be an engine that can unlock financing, expand opportunity, and drive regional prosperity. Singapore, with initiatives like AI4SMEs and Project SEALion, is positioning itself as both a pioneer and connector for this future.
Dr. Andrew Ng — Founder of DeepLearning.AI, Managing General Partner at AI Fund, Executive Chairman of LandingAI, Chairman & Co-Founder of Coursera, and Adjunct Professor at Stanford, born in the UK, raised and schooled in Singapore
Dr. Matthew Kam — Changemaker working on the automation of work and future of workforce upskilling, Google researcher, former Carnegie Mellon professor, born and raised in Singapore
Dr. Leslie Teo - Director AI Singapore
Mei Lin Fung — Born and raised in Singapore, co-founder of the People-Centered Internet with Vint Cerf, closing the with the Asia Development Bank and GovStack Global
From single pivotal moments linking back to Singapore, gets stories you'll remember.
Meet Rachael Annabelle Yong, a serial entrepreneur and global citizen originally from Singapore. With a background spanning Google, early-stage VC, and multiple startups, she now leads Gullie—an AI relocation platform helping companies move talent across 160+ countries. A dynamic founder who recently closed seed funding, Rachael brings firsthand insight into building tech ventures with global impact.
Chaochao is Product Director of Trust & Safety at Affirm, where her team uses AI to fight fraud. Over the past decade, she’s led fintech and AI initiatives at Monzo, Visa, and Capital One, building safe, innovative products at the intersection of finance and tech. Chaochao is currently the Product Director of Trust & Safety at Affirm, where her team leverages AI to detect and deter fraud. Before Affirm, she held leadership roles at Monzo, Visa, and Capital One, operating at the intersection of fintech & AI in the past 10 years.
Jerene Yang currently leads OpenAI’s Synthetic Data Generation team. Previously Head of Runtime and Hosted Services, her teams build large scale AI infrastructure supporting research and production. Before OpenAI, she was a senior engineering leader on Google Spanner. Prior to that, she founded several startups in storage and databases. Jerene is Singaporean and has been living in the Bay Area for almost 15 years.
Professor Ahmed Amer is an associate professor of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University and Emerging Issues Fellow at the Markkula Center. His research focuses on storage, operating, and distributed systems, with interests in ethics, society, and emerging storage technologies.
Andrew Ng is the Founder of DeepLearning.AI, Managing General Partner at AI Fund, Executive Chairman of LandingAI, Chairman & Co-Founder of Coursera, and Adjunct Professor at Stanford. An AI and online education pioneer, he has taught 8M+ people. He was the founding lead of the Google Brain team, VP & Chief Scientist at Baidu, and formerly Director of the Stanford AI Lab. Named to the Time100 AI list in 2023, he has authored/co-authored 200+ papers and holds degrees from CMU, MIT, and UC Berkeley. He now focuses on AI education and entrepreneurial ventures, looking for the best ways to accelerate responsible AI adoption globally.
Dr. Matthew Kam, Google researcher and former Carnegie Mellon professor, builds human-centered technology to close opportunity gaps. He advises organizations like Google.org, Computing Research Association and UNICEF to leverage his research on AI’s workforce impact. He previously co-founded three Google research teams who develop education products for 100M+ users.
With 30 years in tech and strategy, Dr Leslie Teo blends technical and commercial insight to drive innovation and adoption of emerging technologies. He has led cross-cultural teams, built partnerships, and championed people development to scale practical, impactful solutions.
As the Vice Chair of the UN AI for Good Impact Steering Committee, Mei Lin also co-founded the People Centered Internet with Vint Cerf. My work focuses on AI, digital inclusion, and closing the $5.7T MSME financing gap, while championing sustainable and people-centered innovation.
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