MAS poses global challenge to accelerate responsible AI solutions

Up to three winners will receive S$50,000 each.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday launched the first Global Veritas Challenge that sought to expedite innovation of solutions that will validate artificial intelligence and data analytics solutions against the fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency (FEAT) principles.

In a media release, MAS said the aim of the Global Veritas Challenge, supported by Accenture, will also help in strengthening trust and promoting greater adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in the financial sector.

MAS said fintech firms, solution providers, and financial institutions worldwide are invited to submit solutions addressing eight problem statements identified by banks. These are focused on validating the fairness of AI solutions for selected banking use cases in product marketing, risk, compliance and monitoring, loan origination and know-your-customer, and credit scoring and profiling.

“Responsible AI solutions which validate AI solutions against the FEAT principles strengthen trust in AI technologies among users and the general public,” Sophendu Mohanty, chief of the FinTech Office of MAS, said.

“This trust underpins all our AI development efforts and is vital to realising Singapore’s ambition as a global hub for AI in the financial sector. I invite all innovators to use this unique platform to showcase their responsible AI solutions to a global audience,” he added.

Lee Joon Seong, managing director of Accenture’s Applied Intelligence Lead for Southeast Asia said the Global Veritas Challenge 2021 “will help to uncover the practical ways in which businesses can incorporate the FEAT principles into their operations.”

MAS said up to 10 finalists will be shortlisted for a programme where they will develop customised prototypes on the API Exchange AI Sandbox, known as Veritas, with the guidance of industry leaders.

They will pitch their solution in the Global Veritas Challenge Demo Day on 20 October as part of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). Up to three winners will be selected, winning S$50,000 each and they will showcase their projects to a global audience in the SFF from 8 to 12 November.

Those who are interested can submit their applications by 30 July 2021.