New Singapore scheme to certify firms that test and jailbreak AI systems

A new scheme to accredit companies doing testing of artificial intelligence systems, said to be the first in Asia, will be launched in Singapore by the third quarter of 2026.

AI Tester Accreditation Programme (AI TAP), by the not-for-profit AI Verify Foundation, will benefit companies looking to hire external testers to jailbreak their AI products and uncover weaknesses before deployment.

It was announced by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo on 18 May at the International Scientific Exchange on AI Safety (ISE) 2026.

“The programme aims to build a pipeline of competent testing firms that can rigorously assess AI systems across industries, from healthcare and finance to hiring and public services,” said AI Verify Foundation, a subsidiary of Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

The foundation pointed out that businesses need to verify that their AI systems are trustworthy, reliable, and operate as needed. But because there is no clear definition of a qualified AI testing firm, it is difficult to identify capable companies.

“This gap is particularly obvious for technical testing services, which require specialised expertise and remain in short supply. This creates an opportunity for Singapore to contribute to setting the standards on good quality testing,” said the foundation.

Companies hire AI testers to simulate how bad actors could try to trick AI systems into breaking their own safety rules before the products are released publicly.

This can include attempts to make chatbots generate malware code, reveal confidential information, or give dangerous advice that the systems were designed to block.

Common testing methods include using carefully crafted prompts to make AI systems ignore their original instructions and built-in safety safeguards, hiding such malicious prompts in uploaded files or webpages, and pretending to be someone who has higher administrative rights.

Under the new scheme, AI testing companies will be assessed to ensure technical competency against guidelines such as the IMDA Starter Kit for Testing LLM-Based Applications for Safety and Reliability.

Published in January 2026, the guidelines set out the five key risks in large language models, the types of tests that should be conducted for the risks, and how to analyse and interpret the results.

The testers will also be assessed to ensure they have good standing, and are financially sustainable and operationally ready.

No application or accreditation fees will be charged under the scheme.

Testing companies such as Advai, AIDX, Ernst & Young, Knovel Engineering, PwC, Resaro, and Vulcan have expressed early interest in the programme.

Vulcan co-founder Alex Leung said the accreditation will help create clearer standards around what good testing looks like.

He said that right now there are many testers who may simply take open-source benchmark datasets or generic jailbreak prompts and run them against a client’s AI system.

“That can be useful as a starting point, but it is not enough. Proper AI testing has to be customised to the specific application, its use cases, its connected tools, its data flows, and the real-world threat scenarios it faces,” said Mr Leung.

CEO of Knovel Engineering Seah Hee Chuan said that today many organisations claim to have rigorous AI testing methodology, but the depth and breadth of each organisation varies.

“Accreditation helps in several ways – establishing a baseline competency for accredited testers, ensuring governance, and standardising methodologies,” said Mr Seah.
 

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