SINGAPORE, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Wednesday called for a balance between safety and innovation in regulating artificial intelligence (AI), warning that the technology is advancing faster than legal systems can adapt.

Lawrence Wong speaks during a swearing-in ceremony held at Singapore's Istana on May 15, 2024. (Photo: Xinhua)

"We must strike the right balance -- between safety and progress, between control and creativity," Wong said at SGLaw200 Youth Forum, adding that societies were already facing the consequences of AI misuse through sophisticated scams, deepfakes and misinformation.

"These are not hypothetical risks. They are already here," he said.

He added that more difficult questions would emerge as AI systems become more deeply embedded in areas such as healthcare and autonomous vehicles.

He cited examples including wrong medical diagnoses and fatal self-driving car incidents, questioning who should be held accountable when AI systems cause harm.

"Is it the developer who built it, the one who wrote the algorithms, the company that deployed the machine, or the person who used it?" he asked.

Wong said existing legal frameworks were not designed for a world where machines can make consequential decisions, and governments would need to rethink issues surrounding responsibility, liability and accountability.

"Again, this will not be easy. Move too slowly, and the law falls behind while people potentially get hurt. Move too quickly and we risk stifling innovation," he said.

Despite rapid technological advances, he stressed that justice and fairness must ultimately remain matters of human judgment rather than algorithms.