How can society harness the benefits of artificial intelligence while protecting young people from digital harms such as deepfakes, AI-enabled scams, and online psychological risks? That was the central question at the NCPA Social Lab Hackathon 2026, held on 28 February 2026 under the Lien Research Programme on Good Governance (LRPGG) at the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration (NCPA), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Eight student teams from across NCPA’s master’s programmes and NTU’s School of Social Sciences, School of Humanities, Graduate College, and Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information developed policy proposals addressing AI-related risks faced by youths in Singapore. Participants framed the issue not only as a technical challenge, but also as a governance, education, and public health priority, highlighting the need for coordinated responses across ministries, schools, families, and technology platforms.
Two teams were recognised for their youth-centred approaches. One proposed a co-creation and peer ambassador model to address AI chatbot dependency among youths, while the other developed a gamified Roblox-based learning environment integrated with a customised GenAI tool for students’ personal devices. Both proposals were praised for their strong research grounding, practical feasibility, and alignment with Singapore’s existing policy landscape.
The judging panel comprised Prof Ang Hak Seng (Member of the Academic Board, NCPA), Mr Sim Feng-Ji (Deputy Secretary for Digital Government, MDDI), Dr Celia Lee (Senior Research Fellow, NCPA), Dr Ni Rong (Research Fellow, NCPA), and Dr Edwin Chong (Principal Research Scientist, Temasek Laboratories, NTU). The panel expressed encouragement at the quality, diversity, and policy relevance of the proposals, noting that the teams demonstrated strong awareness of Singapore’s existing institutional landscape and a genuine commitment to human-centred, whole-of-society governance design. Several expressed excitement at seeing some of the concepts developed further in future research and policy conversations.
The LRPGG Social Lab Hackathon 2026 reflects NCPA’s ongoing commitment to cultivating the next generation of public administrators equipped with both analytical rigour and the collaborative, interdisciplinary instincts needed to govern complex, fast-moving challenges. The proposals presented this year—spanning AI authenticity, mental health, scam prevention, youth literacy, and systemic resilience—offer a rich set of ideas that may inform future research, policy conversations, and inter-agency initiatives in Singapore and beyond.
