GIFTS, led by Professor William Cong, stresses that integrating AI, fintech, and social science is essential to understand decision-making, information processing, and policy design in a digital era.

The institute aims to position Singapore as a leader in AI and fintech by marrying technical advances with solid economic, business, and social science insights.

GIFTS’ mission spans research, education, industry collaboration, and policy engagement, aiming to translate findings into real-world impact and strengthen Singapore as a trusted financial hub.

GIFTS will launch two global research initiatives: the Economic World Models Initiative, creating digital twin–like simulations of economies, and the Global InferenceNet Initiative, training AI models for advanced economic research and providing benchmarks for progress.

Minister for Digital Development and Information emphasizes AI decisions must be explainable and contestable, with clear accountability across persons, processes, or institutions, underpinned by law, ethics, and policy.

GIFTS will train AI models for research across economics, finance, accounting, management, operations, and information systems, guided by a curated database of social science analyses.

NTU unveils the Global Institute of Finance, Technology, and Society (GIFTS) to study how AI, finance, business, and society intersect and to advise policymakers.

GIFTS will connect with over 40 global fellows and advisors and serve as the ADEFT network’s headquarters, coordinating international collaborations, conferences, visiting programs, and student exchanges.

A core mission is to improve reproducibility, track progress, and train both humans and AI for financial applications.

NTU benchmarking shows current large language models aren’t yet reliable for professional-level economic research, an issue GIFTS plans to address through structured workflows and reproducibility metrics.

The institution notes that large language models are not yet dependable for high-stakes economic research per NTU benchmarks.

GIFTS’ launch coincides with NBS30 celebrations, featuring talks by leaders including Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent and industry figures, culminating in a gala to support NBS projects and student engagement.