ATxSummit 2026 Opens with Shared Regional Ambition to Harness AI for Public Good

SINGAPORE, May 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ATxSummit 2026, hosted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, officially kicked off this evening with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam as the Guest-of-Honour at the Opening Gala Dinner at Gardens by the Bay. This year's ATxSummit will bring together government leaders from Asia, the Middle East and the United States of America; International organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as industry and academic luminaries including Denise Dresser, OpenAI's Chief Revenue Officer, David Zapolsky, Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer, Amazon, Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, William Dally, Chief Scientist at NVIDIA, Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, a pioneer in deep learning, and Professor Dawn Song of University of California, Berkeley, known for her work in artificial intelligence (AI) security and trustworthy machine learning. 

ASEAN's Youth Showcase AI-Enabled Solutions for Society

The highlight of this year's Gala Dinner was a showcase of 11 youth projects from the inaugural AI Ready ASEAN Youth Challenge. With AI adoption across the region reaching 85% in 2024^[1],  these projects demonstrated how ASEAN youth are shaping practical AI solutions for public good. Shortlisted from over 600 submissions across all ASEAN Member States, the 11 projects spanned healthcare, education, social inclusion and agriculture, with a common objective of improving lives and strengthening communities.

President Tharman presented the top three prizes to teams from Brunei, Cambodia and Myanmar, whose innovative applications aligned to the Challenge's focus on knowledge, skills and learning, scientific progress, and stronger communities. Overall winner Brunei's ΣHAI developed an AI-powered dementia care platform using speech, language and video analysis to support earlier detection, personalised caregiver guidance, and care coordination. Cambodia's Voha.ai helps hearing-impaired children improve pronunciation through real-time speech recognition and visual mouth-tracking. Myanmar's Future Flux provides an offline AI education platform powered by edge computing to provide rural students with digital learning, adaptive lessons and AI tutoring. These winners received cash prizes of USD 5,000, USD 3,000, and USD 1,000 respectively.

Koo Sengmeng, Director of Talent & Ecosystem at AI Singapore, said, "This is the kind of impact we hope to see from our AI Ready ASEAN effort – our future generations not just knowing how AI works, but knowing where it matters, where it should be used, and how it can improve lives."

ΣHAI, said: "Through Sahabat-Care, we wanted to address the growing challenge of dementia detection and caregiver support in Southeast Asia. This platform has helped us explore how AI can support caregivers with more timely insights, personalised guidance and better decision-making for elderly care."

The AI Ready ASEAN Youth Challenge is a regional ideathon organised by AI Singapore (AISG) with the ASEAN Foundation, supported by Google.org and in collaboration with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). It is part of the AI Ready ASEAN initiative to equip 5.5 million people with foundational AI literacy and capabilities. Themed "AI for an Inclusive and Sustainable ASEAN", the Challenge called on youth aged 18 to 35 to develop AI-based solutions across three priority areas: knowledge, skills and learning, scientific progress and stronger communities. Each proposal had to demonstrate real-world applications, including outreach to at least 1,000 community members.

AI-Powered Healthcare Research and Solutions 

Earlier in the day, two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) were signed at the SingHealth AI in Health Symposium held at Capella, Singapore, a pre-event of ATxSummit 2026. These MoU will advance AI-powered healthcare research and accelerate solutions for patients and health systems. They reflect the need for scalable solutions given how ageing populations, rising chronic disease burdens, and uneven access to care place pressure on healthcare systems across Southeast Asia. They also demonstrate how AI is answering this call – sharpening clinical decision-making, supporting healthcare workers and extending quality care to more patients:

• SingHealth and the Gyalpozhing College of Information Technology (GCIT), Royal University of Bhutan, signed an MoU to promote the responsible use of AI in healthcare, with a focus on localised solutions for emerging healthcare systems. At the heart of the collaboration is an AI-assisted Chest Radiograph model powered by MerMED-FM, a multimodal, multi-specialty medical imaging foundation model developed by SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Centre and A*STAR's Institute of High Performance Computing. Published in The Lancet Digital Health, the model has demonstrated good performance in detecting pneumonia, tuberculosis, hepatic masses, and colorectal cancer. Trained on Bhutanese data and expected to roll out in 2027 across Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City Healthcare Hospitals, the model brings specialist-level diagnostic capability to rural communities where geographical barriers and shortages of radiological expertise remain pressing challenges and signals SingHealth's ambition to transform diagnostic care regionally.
• Singapore General Hospital (SGH), SingHealth's flagship hospital, Singapore's largest public healthcare cluster, signed an MoU with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)'s Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub) to accelerate AI-enabled and multimodal precision diagnostics into market-ready solutions. This partnership will fast-track commercially scalable diagnostic tools, from fighting antimicrobial resistance infections to detecting early memory loss in seniors, with the ambition of spinning off investable companies delivering health and economic impact to Singapore and beyond.

For more information on ATxSG, please visit asiatechxsg.com.

Media: atxsg.imda@archetype.co

[1] 11th ASEAN Economic Community Dialogue survey. asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ASEAN-for-Business-Bulletin-Special-Edition.pdf

^[1] 11^th ASEAN Economic Community Dialogue survey. asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ASEAN-for-Business-Bulletin-Special-Edition.pdf

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ATxSummit 2026 Opens with Shared Regional Ambition to Harness AI for Public Good

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 3, 2026, local time, a Shanghai-themed cultural exchange event was held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., bringing a taste of Shanghai to the U.S. Titled "Future Resonance — ShanghaiEye Night," the event was also part of the "Shanghai Let's Meet" city promotion initiative and a broader series of China-U.S. people-to-people exchanges. Through a variety of cultural activities and interactions, the event built bridges between people across the Pacific and offered a glimpse of Shanghai as an open, inclusive and dynamic international metropolis.

The event, held by Shanghai Media Group, brought together nearly 100 prominent figures from China and the United States across the political, business, technology, cultural and arts sectors. Song Jiongming, President of Shanghai Media Group, and Susan Lee, Secretary of State of Maryland, attended the event and delivered remarks. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng was also in attendance.

In the afternoon, the National Mall was transformed into a "mini Shanghai" carnival. The carnival featured 50 stalls showcasing international cuisine, a "Shanghai Charm" themed exhibition area and displays of China's intangible cultural heritage.

Visitors got a glimpse of Shanghai's cutting-edge technological innovation through a model of the C919 passenger jet, explored the city's latest trends through a model of the Oriental Pearl Tower and popular Chinese cultural and creative IPs, and took a virtual journey through Shanghai's past and present with VR headsets provided by the Shanghai Museum. Time-honored brands such as White Rabbit candy, Hero fountain pens and Lao Feng Xiang offered visitors a taste of Shanghai's iconic homegrown brands. Meanwhile, an IP SHANGHAI lenticular art exhibition brought the city to life through dynamic images that changed as visitors moved around the displays.

From such an immersive experience showcasing Shanghai as a first stop for international visitors entering China to distinctive IPs spanning culture, commerce, tourism, sports and exhibitions, the carnival offered Americans and international visitors a glimpse of the city and a chance to experience Shanghai firsthand at one of Washington's most iconic landmarks. Many visitors said they hoped to visit Shanghai in person and explore the city on foot through a "city walk."

As the sun began to set, its golden glow fell over the Capitol dome. Against an iconic backdrop featuring the two cities, the "Future Resonance" outdoor concert got underway.

Young performers from China and the United States took the stage alongside renowned artists from both countries. The One Voice Children's Choir from the United States and the Manhattan Philharmonic joined forces to perform "We Are Together," a song created in Shanghai to celebrate friendship between the two countries.

The program featured a rich mix of symphonic works, traditional Chinese music, Chinese opera and anime music. Footage from Shanghai's city image film "UP! SHANGHAI" played on the large screen behind the stage throughout the concert.

Later that evening, nearly 100 guests from China and the United States, including prominent figures from politics, business, technology, culture and the arts, took part in the ShanghaiEye Night dialogue session.

Themed "Invest in China for a Win-Win Future," the dialogue highlighted the China International Import Expo and Shanghai's development as an international economic, financial, trade, shipping and technological innovation center. It also showcased the city's world-class business environment and provided a platform for high-level dialogue and practical cooperation between Chinese and U.S. companies.

The dialogue also featured a "Shanghai Charm" city image reception area. On one side, twenty selected historical photographs capturing key "Shanghai moments" in China-U.S. relations were displayed, including the signing of the Shanghai Communiqué, the launch of the first China-U.S. air route, the opening of Apple's first store in China, the Tesla Gigafactory and the 10th anniversary of Shanghai Disney Resort.

On the other side, 20 photographs from the IP SHANGHAI platform, under the theme "Chasing Dreams in Shanghai," showcased Lujiazui Financial City, Yangshan Deep-Water Port, Shanghai Grand Opera House, the North Bund shipping hub, and the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. Together, the displays offered guests a visual introduction to the city and created lasting memories of Shanghai.

With the support of the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government and co-hosted by Shanghai Media Group, the World Intangible Cultural Heritage Conservation Center and the Washington Chinese Community Alliance, the event brought together guests from a range of sectors in China and the United States.

The event brought Shanghai closer to American audiences and the international community through city promotion, cultural performances, interactive experiences and high-level dialogue. It also provided a platform for people-to-people and cultural exchange between China and the United States. Reflecting the theme "Future Resonance," the event hoped to give a warm and positive boost to people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

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"Future Resonance -- ShanghaiEye Night" Brings Shanghai to Washington, Fosters People-to-People Exchange Across the Pacific

"Future Resonance -- ShanghaiEye Night" Brings Shanghai to Washington, Fosters People-to-People Exchange Across the Pacific