SINGAPORE: Existing legal frameworks were not designed for a world where artificial intelligence allows machines to make “consequential decisions”, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Wednesday (May 13).

This reality requires a rethink of fundamental assumptions about responsibility, liability and accountability, he added.

Acknowledging that this will not be easy, Mr Wong pointed out the tension between moving too slowly and letting the law fall behind, versus moving too quickly and stifling innovation.

“We must strike the right balance – between safety and progress, between control and creativity,” he said.

Mr Wong was speaking about the rule of law in his opening address at the SGLaw200 Youth Forum, part of commemorations for the bicentennial of Singapore’s modern legal and judicial system.

He said AI was advancing faster than legal systems can keep up, giving examples of more sophisticated scams, deepfakes and misinformation as a consequence of the technology's use.

Harder questions of who should be held accountable lay ahead, he said, as he sketched out scenarios of AI giving a wrong medical diagnosis or a fatal accident with a self-driving car.

“Even as we harness technology, we must be clear that the law ultimately rests on human judgment,” said Mr Wong.

“Machines can assist, analyse and recommend. But questions of responsibility, fairness and justice cannot be delegated entirely to algorithms.

“These are human questions, which humans must decide – and that must always remain so.”

Access to justice is another challenge the current legal system faces, said Mr Wong, who is also finance minister.

Even the best legal system in the world means little if it is out of reach for ordinary citizens, he said.

“A system only works if everyday Singaporeans can use it to find justice and enforce their rights,” he added.

Mr Wong said Singapore made important progress in this area by establishing the state-funded Public Defender’s Office in 2022.