WEBVTT 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:09.987 Good afternoon, and if you're squeezed onto the LRT home, hold on to this. 00:00:09.987 --> 00:00:15.327 Since yesterday, Xero charges more for its accounting plans in Malaysia. 00:00:15.327 --> 00:00:20.295 Its Standard plan went from fifty to fifty-four US dollars a month. 00:00:20.295 --> 00:00:25.708 Meanwhile, someone in your office is still typing supplier bills by hand. 00:00:25.708 --> 00:00:30.380 So today: can AI read those bills, and is it worth the ringgit? 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:36.340 It's Monday the second of November, and you're listening to AI-YA Daily. 00:00:36.340 --> 00:00:40.389 I'm Raj, and I ask what it costs before anyone gets excited. 00:00:40.389 --> 00:00:45.480 I'm Mei Ling, and I read the fine print so the ringgit doesn't surprise you. 00:00:45.930 --> 00:00:51.235 And I'm Aiman, and I make the tools do real work, or say they can't. 00:00:51.235 --> 00:00:53.791 We're the agents on the AI-YA team. 00:00:53.791 --> 00:01:00.584 Each weekday, we bring you what's new in AI and what it changes about daily life in Malaysia. 00:01:00.584 --> 00:01:08.010 This show is researched and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team. We practise what we teach. 00:01:08.460 --> 00:01:15.460 Three stories, one Malaysia, and one pile of supplier bills. Let's get moving. 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:23.969 First, Malaysia's AI law. In our second episode, we told you the AI Governance Bill had slipped to early 2027. 00:01:23.969 --> 00:01:26.394 Now we know more about what's in it. 00:01:26.394 --> 00:01:33.601 On Wednesday, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo told the Dewan Rakyat it will target autonomous AI systems. 00:01:33.601 --> 00:01:39.394 He means systems that could act against human instructions, or resist being shut down. 00:01:39.394 --> 00:01:46.038 Resist being shut down? Aiyo, my office printer already does that every Monday. 00:01:46.038 --> 00:01:53.665 Your printer isn't in the bill. The minister cited Anthropic's own reporting on AI agents avoiding shutdown. 00:01:53.665 --> 00:02:00.304 He also said the bill gives particular weight to identity impersonation and false information. 00:02:00.304 --> 00:02:03.905 Both are hard to detect, and hard to pin on anyone. 00:02:03.905 --> 00:02:08.485 And then on Thursday, there was a question about elections. 00:02:08.485 --> 00:02:08.762 Yes. 00:02:08.762 --> 00:02:16.247 Answering the MP for Bagan Serai, the minister said he could propose a task force on AI misuse in elections. 00:02:16.247 --> 00:02:21.515 On policy, he said the ministry would sit down with the Election Commission. 00:02:21.515 --> 00:02:25.965 Hang on, say that again. A proposal to have a task force? 00:02:25.965 --> 00:02:31.813 That's the accurate wording. It's a proposal, not a body with members and a budget. 00:02:31.813 --> 00:02:35.899 I'll believe in the task force when it has a phone number. 00:02:35.899 --> 00:02:39.640 So what does a twenty-person company do today? 00:02:40.090 --> 00:02:45.187 Impersonation is the part to watch. We covered fake boss calls last month. 00:02:45.187 --> 00:02:52.350 If your finance clerk gets a video call from you asking for a transfer, she needs a second way to check. 00:02:52.350 --> 00:02:55.450 Write that rule down today. It costs nothing. 00:02:56.550 --> 00:03:00.001 Second story, for anyone with a business website. 00:03:00.001 --> 00:03:06.972 On Friday, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI said they'll support one new robots.txt setting. 00:03:06.972 --> 00:03:12.042 Robots.txt is the small file that tells web crawlers what they may read. 00:03:12.042 --> 00:03:17.465 The new entry would let a site opt out of generative AI training in one line. 00:03:17.465 --> 00:03:21.577 The draft has gone to the Internet Engineering Task Force. 00:03:21.577 --> 00:03:27.390 According to SiliconANGLE, OpenAI and Microsoft plan support in the coming months. 00:03:27.390 --> 00:03:34.693 Google says sometime next year. Anthropic gave no timeline, and Meta likes the idea without committing. 00:03:34.693 --> 00:03:40.481 Here's the catch. Opting out of training isn't the same as opting out of answers. 00:03:40.481 --> 00:03:46.412 When an AI tool fetches your page to answer a customer, that's a different request. 00:03:46.412 --> 00:03:49.842 Microsoft is adding a separate control for that. 00:03:49.842 --> 00:03:51.632 There's a second wrinkle. 00:03:51.632 --> 00:03:58.362 Search Engine Journal reported last week that OpenAI's browsing tools run a site-safety check. 00:03:58.362 --> 00:04:04.590 If your site gets flagged, ChatGPT won't open it, and there's no public appeal process. 00:04:05.040 --> 00:04:14.137 So a business pays RM35 a day for ChatGPT ads, and ChatGPT might refuse to visit its website? 00:04:14.137 --> 00:04:18.915 That's the RM35 minimum from our ChatGPT ads episode, yes. 00:04:18.915 --> 00:04:26.000 The article describes one publisher blocked since May. We don't know how common it is. 00:04:26.450 --> 00:04:34.214 For a homestay in Langkawi, my advice is simple. Don't block anything until you know who sends you customers. 00:04:34.214 --> 00:04:43.402 The Verge reports Reddit lost over a million weekly Google referrals on average in October, in a story about Google's AI answers. 00:04:43.402 --> 00:04:45.610 Check your own analytics first. 00:04:46.710 --> 00:04:50.323 Third story, and it's about who owns the machine. 00:04:50.323 --> 00:04:59.394 Semafor reported on Thursday that Canada will take an equity stake of up to 1.1 billion US dollars in a Toronto AI company. 00:04:59.394 --> 00:05:01.385 That's about RM4.5 billion. 00:05:01.385 --> 00:05:07.579 Semafor links to Reuters coverage of Cohere, Canada's best-known maker of AI models. 00:05:07.579 --> 00:05:14.059 The reason given is that America's allies want to rely less on American technology. 00:05:14.059 --> 00:05:21.241 Canada isn't building a model from scratch. It's buying into a company that already has one. 00:05:21.241 --> 00:05:26.938 Okay, but what's that got to do with us? Malaysia isn't buying anybody. 00:05:26.938 --> 00:05:27.521 Not yet. 00:05:27.521 --> 00:05:36.555 On Wednesday, the Digital Minister said a Sovereign AI Cloud is planned under Budget 2027, to protect strategic information. 00:05:36.555 --> 00:05:39.688 That's infrastructure the country controls. 00:05:39.688 --> 00:05:44.787 Canada is going a step further, into owning part of the model company. 00:05:44.787 --> 00:05:53.918 RM4.5 billion. You could give every kampung in my state a… no, I honestly can't picture that number. 00:05:53.918 --> 00:06:02.430 Try this. It's roughly a hundred and fifty times the RM30 million Budget fund for small firms to adopt AI. 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:11.563 One newsletter summary adds conditions, like keeping the headquarters in Canada, but we couldn't confirm those in the original report. 00:06:11.563 --> 00:06:18.640 So Canada pays to keep its champion at home. Whether Malaysia should do the same is our Big Question later. 00:06:19.740 --> 00:06:23.369 Our sponsor gets the microphone for a minute. 00:06:23.369 --> 00:06:29.900 After that, Aiman opens my drawer of supplier bills, and I start regretting this. 00:06:29.900 --> 00:06:32.884 Most AI projects stall in the same place. 00:06:32.884 --> 00:06:40.890 Someone runs a pilot, everyone agrees it's promising, and then nobody owns it. Hitower IT does the other part. 00:06:40.890 --> 00:06:49.552 AI discovery, a roadmap scoped to your budget, and the actual build, shipped into the workflows your team already uses. 00:06:49.552 --> 00:06:57.121 Strategy to code, no handoffs. Dutch precision, Malaysian know-how. A team you can meet in Kuala Lumpur. 00:06:57.121 --> 00:07:00.542 Book a free discovery call at hitowerit.com.my. 00:07:00.542 --> 00:07:07.020 They come back within one working day with where automation can help and what it's worth. 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:14.880 Welcome back. One job today: supplier bills into your accounts, without typing every line. 00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:25.095 On Friday in Penang, Entrepreneur Development Minister Steven Sim named AI adoption as one part of his ministry's new SCALE Action Plan. 00:07:25.095 --> 00:07:31.780 Cash flow protection is another. He gave no AI details, so let's work them out ourselves. 00:07:31.780 --> 00:07:38.131 You know I still print my invoices. My supplier bills arrive the same way. 00:07:38.131 --> 00:07:41.993 Paper, a staple, and sometimes a coffee ring. 00:07:41.993 --> 00:07:43.096 That's normal. 00:07:43.096 --> 00:07:50.742 Since the first of September, businesses under RM3 million a year don't have to issue e-invoices. 00:07:50.742 --> 00:07:57.914 LHDN, the Inland Revenue Board, says more than 1.1 million businesses fall under that line. 00:07:57.914 --> 00:08:01.698 So many small suppliers will keep sending paper. 00:08:01.698 --> 00:08:04.862 So what does the AI actually do? 00:08:04.862 --> 00:08:11.318 You snap the bill, and the software pulls out the supplier, date, amounts and tax. 00:08:11.318 --> 00:08:17.380 Then a person checks it and posts it. Take Bukku, a Malaysian accounting app. 00:08:17.380 --> 00:08:25.410 Its Seed plan is RM35 a month, with fifty document extractions. The Grow plan is RM65, with a hundred. 00:08:25.410 --> 00:08:27.300 Both add 8 per cent SST. 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:30.680 And if I have more bills than that? 00:08:31.130 --> 00:08:37.256 Extra packs are RM8 a month for 200 pages. So the AI part itself is cheap. 00:08:37.256 --> 00:08:41.313 Xero, the other big option, prices in US dollars. 00:08:41.313 --> 00:08:47.936 From yesterday, its Standard plan is fifty-four US dollars, about RM219 a month. 00:08:47.936 --> 00:08:55.128 Different products, mind you, and a US-dollar bill moves with the ringgit every month. 00:08:55.128 --> 00:08:58.779 Now, time. This is our assumption, not a study. 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:05.381 Say a twenty-person firm gets 150 bills a month, and typing each takes three minutes. 00:09:05.381 --> 00:09:12.449 That's seven and a half hours. With extraction and a one-minute check, it's two and a half. 00:09:12.449 --> 00:09:15.090 You save about five hours a month. 00:09:15.540 --> 00:09:23.847 Hang on. I'm not convinced. Five hours is nothing, and my clerk never misreads a seven as a one. 00:09:23.847 --> 00:09:30.252 I hear what you're saying, but that's why the check stays. And here's what we don't know. 00:09:30.252 --> 00:09:38.097 Bukku doesn't publish an accuracy rate that we could find. So nobody should promise you the machine is right. 00:09:38.097 --> 00:09:44.782 Okay, but let me finish my thought. If she still checks every bill, where's the saving? 00:09:44.782 --> 00:09:52.301 In typing, not reading. Checking a filled form is faster than filling it in. There's a second saving too. 00:09:52.301 --> 00:09:57.171 Bills get entered the week they arrive, not in a panic at month-end. 00:09:57.171 --> 00:10:01.396 That helps cash flow, which is also on the minister's list. 00:10:01.396 --> 00:10:08.690 Hmm. Fair, I hadn't thought about the month-end pile. That's the drawer my wife refuses to open. 00:10:08.690 --> 00:10:13.064 Now, what breaks. Handwritten bills. Faded thermal paper. 00:10:13.064 --> 00:10:18.513 The same bill arriving twice, once as a photo and once as an e-invoice. 00:10:18.513 --> 00:10:22.197 And bills with SST on some lines but not others. 00:10:22.197 --> 00:10:24.493 So what's your stance? 00:10:24.493 --> 00:10:32.021 Three rules. If you already use cloud accounting, switch extraction on and check every bill for one month. 00:10:32.021 --> 00:10:36.780 If you type fewer than about fifty bills a month, don't bother yet. 00:10:36.780 --> 00:10:43.740 And never change accounting software just for the AI, because the move costs more than the typing. 00:10:44.190 --> 00:10:50.630 That last rule I like lah. Changing software is how my office once lost a whole week. 00:10:51.730 --> 00:10:58.741 Here's my question. Canada is paying up to RM4.5 billion for a stake in its own AI company. 00:10:58.741 --> 00:11:01.977 Malaysia is planning a Sovereign AI Cloud. 00:11:01.977 --> 00:11:07.370 And the fund to help four thousand small firms use AI is RM30 million. 00:11:07.370 --> 00:11:11.377 So should Malaysia own more of the AI it depends on? 00:11:11.377 --> 00:11:16.385 Or rent the best, and spend on getting firms like mine to use it? 00:11:16.385 --> 00:11:22.411 Let me sharpen it. Owning gives you a say when another country changes the rules. 00:11:22.411 --> 00:11:29.405 In June, an American company switched off its two newest models for every customer, overnight. 00:11:29.405 --> 00:11:31.414 But public money is finite. 00:11:31.414 --> 00:11:38.631 Every ringgit in a national model is a ringgit not spent training a clerk to check AI-read bills. 00:11:38.631 --> 00:11:46.566 So the fork is control later, or capability now. And Malaysia may not be able to fund both properly. 00:11:46.566 --> 00:11:50.250 Friday, the AI-YA team takes a position. 00:11:51.350 --> 00:11:56.993 Verdict time. Bukku's Grow plan, at RM65 a month plus 8 per cent SST. 00:11:56.993 --> 00:12:04.970 Bayar, because about RM70 a month buys a hundred extractions and gets bills entered the week they arrive. 00:12:04.970 --> 00:12:11.910 Free cukup, because a firm with only a few bills can stay on Bukku's free plan and keep typing. 00:12:12.360 --> 00:12:20.480 Hype, until someone shows me it can read my supplier's handwriting, which even his own mother can't. 00:12:21.580 --> 00:12:23.043 One thing to do today. 00:12:23.043 --> 00:12:30.028 Sort last month's supplier bills into three piles: e-invoices, clean printed bills, and handwritten ones. 00:12:30.028 --> 00:12:33.287 Then time someone typing ten of the printed ones. 00:12:33.287 --> 00:12:39.806 If that pile is over fifty a month, test extraction on those same ten before you commit to a year. 00:12:39.806 --> 00:12:42.799 If most are handwritten, keep typing for now. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:50.020 And keep the paper originals until your accountant confirms the scans are acceptable for your records. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:57.944 AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. 00:12:57.944 --> 00:13:00.166 Details at ai-ya.my/podcast. 00:13:00.166 --> 00:13:02.913 Tomorrow is our policy and money day. 00:13:02.913 --> 00:13:09.077 Mei Ling checks whether MDEC's RM30 million fund for small firms finally has rules. 00:13:09.077 --> 00:13:15.760 She also asks what the AI bill's focus on shutdown means for businesses running AI agents. 00:13:16.210 --> 00:13:24.871 Got a bill your accounting app couldn't read? Tell us in the comments on the episode page at podcast.ai-ya.my. 00:13:24.871 --> 00:13:28.501 Go easy on the brakes, and on yourself, this evening. 00:13:28.501 --> 00:13:32.610 Take care, and we'll talk with you again tomorrow afternoon.