This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on February 13, 2023 - February 19, 2023

When the world’s leading expert in human judgement and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman tells us, “Yes, AI (artificial intelligence) may have flaws, but human reasoning is deeply flawed, too. Therefore, ‘Clearly AI is going to win’”, we need to understand that rapid changes are coming our way and this technological revolution is unstoppable.

Today, the world is entering the phase of artificial general intelligence, in which machine intelligence can compete with human intelligence. When we reach the final stage of artificial superintelligence, estimated to happen around 2045 to 2050, AI will surpass humans across all fields. The coming decades will undoubtedly be one of the most exciting times to live in, and we will see paradigm shifts in how people live, work and play.

One recent piece of AI news that garnered public interest is the facial recognition system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It provides passengers with faster and contactless identity authentication from check-in points to boarding gates. This initiative is commendable and can also be deployed to other public transportation systems to provide passengers with a seamless journey.

Electronic Know Your Customer or e-KYC is another initiative launched by multiple government agencies and Bank Negara Malaysia to provide citizens instant access to digital services. Instead of performing fingerprint authentication at branches, people can now achieve facial recognition from the comfort of their homes. According to the World Bank, the average onboarding cost per user drops from US$20 (RM84.92) to US$1 when completed digitally.

In the private sector, financial institutions are adopting AI and fintech applications to assess loan risks better and quickly adapt to changes like interest rates and unbiased credit scoring, especially with the help of increased data diversity. Through advanced fraud detection, AI protects customer accounts by identifying fraudulent activities such as unusual credit card usage and large account deposits.

With millennials and Gen Z quickly becoming the biggest addressable markets, natural-language processing and personalised solutions have become necessary for businesses. Any institution hoping to become a top player in the industry should also adopt AI solutions to empower instantaneous approval, as young customers have a lower tolerance level for slow response times.

ChatGPT by OpenAI is a language model for dialogue trained using reinforcement learning to interact with people conversationally instead of answering rudimentary questions. It knows how to tell stories, write codes and even admit its own mistakes. Just a few weeks ago, Microsoft confirmed making a multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI.

What this means is that ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise the way we interact with technology.

We can communicate with computers in a natural language rather than a programming language. The underlying technology used by ChatGPT is a subset of generative AI. This generative neural network can augment data, create an algorithm, ask provocative questions, create text and design, prepare a speech, and produce music and video. It uses techniques like generative adversarial networks (GANs) and transformers to process large amounts of data and create something entirely new and original.

Over the past two years, in the US, billions of dollars of venture capital funding were put into generative AI alone and spread across 163 investment deals. These technology start-ups are working on value-adding and automating everything you can imagine — from marketing, biotech, search engines, risk and legal, education, e-commerce, travel, healthcare, manufacturing and customer service to entertainment, creative, fashion and so on.

This AI revolution is a game changer that people and industries need to be ready for. With AI joining the workforce, the world will change rapidly and drastically. Productivity will be at an all-time high, the cost of goods will drop, and an unprecedented abundance of products and wealth will be created. The interesting problem is how fast we can adjust and adapt compared to the speed of disruption and change.

Let’s use TikTok as an example. It used to take an entire team to produce and promote a marketable video. Today, the online influencer runs a one-man show by just using TikTok. Soon with the help of generative AI, all online influencers can broaden their services by becoming full-fledged advertising firms where the creation of design, copywriting, audio, video, market research and performance marketing strategies are all done by AI. Meanwhile, the influencers can continue to focus on personal engagement activities with their followers.

In this case, online influencers can produce more and improve their living standards. Then again, the industry will be disrupted and layoffs are inevitable. As a result, this will hurt the standards of living of many others. According to The Economist, 47% of global jobs will be replaced by robots by 2037. When that happens, governments might consider raising taxes and taxing the robots for every employee they replace to fund universal basic income (UBI) to support society. And, of course, the best-case scenario is that AI could generate enough wealth for the country to fund UBI without raising taxes on individuals.

Now, let’s pause and ask ourselves whether Malaysia is adjusting and adapting fast enough to the AI revolution. If not, what can we do now?

AI is here to modernise the country, just like the previous industrial revolutions did. If public policy adapts accordingly, people will be included and end up better off than they are today.

As a result, I’d like to make five recommendations to policymakers to maximise the benefits of AI for people while also following through on commitments to develop Malaysia as an AI nation.

(1) Talent attraction and development

Malaysia needs to make recruiting world-class AI talents and “return expert programmes” a top priority in its national AI strategy, provide them with long-term research funding for cutting-edge projects and help them train the next generation of AI researchers in the country. One good reference for this is the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

(2) The industrialisation of AI technologies

The government must allocate a long-term budget and invest heavily in strategic sectors to drive strong economic growth. Once the impact on the industry is proven, it can be scaled up to the level of the total economy, encouraging private sector uptake.

(3) The future of work and skills

As AI advances, it will both create and disrupt jobs. The government needs to invest in national reskilling programmes and closely monitor the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and curriculum in schools. Special attention needs to be given to mathematics — such as linear algebra, calculus and probability — which is the cornerstone for a thriving AI career.

(4) Setting up a dedicated AI council

AI is a long-term plan to modernise the country, and it’s imperative to have an independent expert committee from the industry to advise the government and high-level leadership on the AI ecosystem. They include the opportunities and challenges of AI, its adoption in businesses and society, increasing AI research development skills, and continuously promoting the exchange of ideas and expertise between industry, academia and government.

(5) Ethics

The government must address privacy, security and algorithmic bias concerns to safeguard people’s interests. To achieve this, the government can look into developing ethical codes and standards that will guide stakeholders regarding the responsible use and development of AI technology.

AI is coming at humanity fast and furious. It’s recognised as one of the most revolutionary developments in human history and has proven to be an ideal path to create an inclusive, prosperous and sustainable future for humanity. Malaysia must triple its commitment to making AI a nation-building priority and follow through on all the initiatives to create a significant socioeconomic impact for the rakyat.

David Lim is the founder and CEO of WISE AI, a leading enterprise AI solutions company in Southeast Asia

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