The Covid-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented devastation across the world. Lives and jobs have been lost, the healthcare sector has been stretched thin, and a shared sense of loneliness and despair has rippled across the globe. Yet, as a community, we have not suffered equally.

When both the rich and the less privileged had to undergo lockdowns and fell ill last year, many thought that Covid-19 would serve as a much-needed equaliser. But as the crisis quickly unfolded, deep inequalities within our society were brought to light.

There is a reason why engineers and designers provide machines with the semblance of friendliness, but it takes more than that to establish trust between AI and humans.

I was at Promenade MRT Station waiting to travel to work, when my attention was drawn to a little boy pointing at a cleaning robot moving in my direction. It was making comforting gurgling noises, its eyes were blinking gently and soft music accompanied its movements.

"Look at its smiley face!" said the boy and we all boarded the driverless train without a worry.

SMU welcomed Mr Amit Midha, President of Asia Pacific & Japan and Global Digital Cities at Dell Technologies, as the first keynote speaker of the Presidential Distinguished Lecturer Series (PDLS) of 2021 held at SMU Hall on 31 March.

SMU President Professor Lily Kong hosted the hybrid event which was attended by close to 350 SMU students, staff and faculty, polytechnic and junior college students, and teachers, as well as government, media and industry representatives.

Money is said to make the world go round. But does it also help green the globe?

The global economy is increasingly reliant on natural resources, yet the rate of consumption continues to exceed the speed of regeneration. This unsustainable behaviour is driven by several factors, including population growth, technological advancement, and rising living standards. As a result, there is a growing need to encourage a shift in sustainable behaviour in individuals and businesses.

Shareholders and citizens are increasingly holding to account companies and organisations that claim to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) yet may deliver little more than lip service.

Imagine if you could make sustainable living interesting and fun, and more importantly, ensure that efforts to go green are truly tangible.

For Alibaba Group’s Ant Financial (renamed as “Ant Group" in 2020), its corporate social responsibility (CSR) project, Ant Forest, is the real deal.

So how did a China fintech company pave the way in gamifying green behaviour?