Addressing the audience of 500 members of the public at The Straits Times Education Forum 2026, which was co-hosted by SMU at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Education Minister Desmond Lee said a new committee will guide the next stage of artificial intelligence use and adoption across Singapore’s higher-education sector. The event included a panel discussion on the topic: “AI in Higher Education: Hype or Hope?”, moderated by SMU Vice President (Partnerships and Engagement) and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication & Technology Lim Sun Sun. The panel which comprised Minister Lee, Raghav Gupta, head of education for Asia-Pacific at OpenAI, and SMU Provost Alan Chan, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Chair Professor of Inter-Religious Studies and Harmony, dissected AI’s profound academic impact, and the need to shift from broad knowledge acquisition to deeper, more applied expertise.