Moving forward with AI: How Malaysia can grow into an AI-savvy nation with the right talent and innovation

As the world gears up for artificial intelligence to change the way we work, communicate and learn, Malaysia is working towards nurturing more AI talent.

Science, Technology & Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang said part of the National AI Roadmap 2021-2025 aims to provide enough training to develop skillsets needed to push for AI innovations in Malaysia.

“It is the way forward. We do not have enough talent. If we want to grow into an AI-savvy nation, we need talent,” he said during the AI Unplugged conference organised by the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) in KL on Aug 10.

The National AI Roadmap 2021-2025 defined AI talent as “individuals who possess technical competencies necessary to strategise, develop, maintain and manage AI solutions”, with potential talents identified including data scientists, AI developers, researchers and engineers.

Chang said the ministry will implement strategies to encourage industry leaders and academicians to collaborate on initiatives to train AI talent.

Since the emergence of generative AI applications like ChatGPT and Dall-E, more companies have reportedly ramped up investments in AI. It was reported that Microsoft has invested US$10bil (RM45.73bil) into OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT. Google has also reportedly invested US$300mil (RM1.37bil) into AI firm Anthropic which has done research on language models.

ACCCIM president Tan Sri Datuk Low Kian Chuan in his keynote speech said while AI can bring excitement and scalable benefits, caution is required as biases in AI decisions, security, and respect of personal data privacy and ethical issues remain open.

“Like humans, generative AI can be wrong and has imperfections. ChatGPT occasionally generates inaccurate or inappropriate information and does not have a built-in mechanism to signal to the user or (to) challenge the results,” he said.

He also said that it’s essential for the government, industry and workforce to be prepared for the changes caused by AI. There needs to be research into the impact of AI by sector, age group, gender, educational attainment and socio-economic group, he added.

“Develop targeted strategies to address future job displacement based on the analysis. The education system, learning institutes and training institutions play a pivotal role to maximise the opportunities and minimise the risk created by AI,” Low added.

Chang, however, refuted the perception that AI could replace people at their jobs: “We have this common perception that AI will take over human jobs, on the contrary, I would say AI will not take over human jobs.”

The minister acknowledged however that AI may take over some labour-intensive jobs.

“Or jobs that even we wouldn’t do, (that) we are outsourcing to foreign workers,” he added.

He also foresees AI creating more job opportunities.

“When we use AI in any industry, we need talent to control and maintain the systems,” he said.

Chang said anxiety around new technology is nothing new, explaining that during the industrial revolution, people also had fears that then novel innovations such as the steam engine would mean the loss of their jobs. He added that in time, people will learn to adapt and see a lot of new opportunities in the industry.

“I would just like to tell you not to worry – AI is the way forward, just that we need to ensure that our workforce has the skills to handle the new situation,” he said.

Among some AI-powered innovations that were showcased at the conference were the Harvest-Ready Tree Detection computer vision analysis platform by the national Applied Research and Development Centre (Mimos).

According to Advanced Intelligence Lab associate researcher Lee Chia Chie, a moving tracker fitted with cameras and sensors that are connected to their platform can detect loose fruitlets on the ground and their exact location to alert workers that the palm oil tree is ready for harvest.

“This solution aims to help palm oil plantation owners manage productivity. Instead of having workers walk around the huge plantation for hours and potentially wasting time, they could now locate harvest-ready trees more efficiently,” he said.

Lee added that Mimos, which has spent about a year developing the technology, is currently testing it at a plantation in Sungai Pelek, Selangor.

Mimos’ Smart Nation Technologies head of centre Ng Kang Siong touched on the use of AI in other areas, including in processing and interpreting data from social media.

“The other AI research we are looking at is being able to do sentiment analysis based on social media data and also use AI to generate code,” said Ng.

He added that Mimos is exploring the use of ChatGPT-like AI with knowledge of a company’s policies, rules and regulations that can interact with an end user, though he acknowledged training is needed to suppress possible biases.

Also on the conference showfloor was local startup Wise AI, which showcased its Virtual Human technology that looks to digitise people to create an AI-powered version of themselves.

The technology is still under development, but once released, the company said users would be able to feed it photos and between 30 to 40 minutes of their own voice recordings to create a digital avatar with their likeness that would function like an AI-enhanced version of smartphone voice assistants.

“Essentially, we help people create a digital version of themselves which they can use for influencer marketing or to perform online tasks such as booking flight tickets,” said Prem Kumar, the AI product manager.

He added that the benefits of using virtual humans include helping people to replicate themselves to perform multiple tasks.