'Entire journey of building AI Nation requires industrial input'

Putrajaya must listen to industry leaders rather than dictating from the top down for Malaysia to transform into an AI Nation, says Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo.

KUALA LUMPUR: The journey to create an artificial intelligence (AI) nation cannot be done “top down” but must instead be fuelled by the participation of industry players.

Malaysia’s Digital Minister, Gobind Singh Deo, said it is not a case of the government telling the industry what they need to do so that the nation can fully embrace such technology.

“This is something where we have to sit back and listen, understand what is developing around us because the industry players know better,” said Gobind.

“They (industry players) know the latest technology, they know what the challenges are, they know what are the possible hurdles that we will face.

“Ultimately, this new approach has to be how we can actually work together with the industry.”

Gobind was speaking during the Ministerial Dialogue held at Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s Energy Transition Conference at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre earlier today.

He added that it was important for the government to create the kind of ecosystem that the industry requires so that when new technology arrives in Malaysia, the nation is ready to use it.

“We don’t want to have a situation where new technology is present right in front of us but we don’t have the ecosystem that allows us to adopt it,” Gobind said.

“We want to make sure that we are ready (for the new technology) when we want to use it.”

Gobind also stressed the importance of political and economic stability for Malaysia to succeed in creating an AI Nation.

“Then we need to start looking at institutions, bring in the experts. Spend the money where we need to, so that we can actually build a country that is not going to talk about AI, but how we can be an AI Nation and contribute to this process.

“It’s not easy but ultimately it boils down to building policies that institutions can work around and very clear targets about what we want to achieve.”

Gobind added Malaysia embarked on this AI Nation journey because Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim took a bold step, urging ministers to engage in conversations about AI and technology in Cabinet.

“That’s the reason why a Digital Ministry was set up. But a ministry alone cannot get the job done. We need to build the structures.

“We also need to ensure our Malaysians not only use the AI tools but how they can use the tools to build AI agents to empower them, and their businesses moving ahead.

“We are on the right footing and we will get there (to becoming an AI Nation).”

The conference was launched by Anwar and was attended by the Deputy Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Mohamad.