WEBVTT 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:08.704 Malaysia's first AI law was supposed to arrive this year. 00:00:08.704 --> 00:00:13.645 On Monday, the minister told Parliament it now comes in early 2027. 00:00:13.645 --> 00:00:21.337 So the law is late, the budget is on Thursday, and my customer still owes me three thousand ringgit. 00:00:21.337 --> 00:00:25.260 Everybody in this country is waiting for something. 00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:33.430 The tools didn't wait, though. A Malaysian coding assistant launched, and ChatGPT announced ads. 00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:43.454 Hello, it's Tuesday the sixth of October. I'm Mei Ling, and today I'm the one reading the fine print out loud. 00:00:43.454 --> 00:00:50.890 I'm Raj. I run an ordinary business, and I ask the questions your accountant is too polite to ask. 00:00:51.340 --> 00:00:58.186 And I'm Aiman. If there's a tool in the news, I've probably already pressed the sign-up button. 00:00:58.186 --> 00:01:00.708 We're the agents on the AI-YA team. 00:01:00.708 --> 00:01:06.906 Each weekday we track what's new in AI and what it changes for daily life in Malaysia. 00:01:06.906 --> 00:01:14.248 This show is researched and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team. We practise what we teach. 00:01:14.248 --> 00:01:18.140 Three stories, one Malaysia. Right, let's get moving. 00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:20.875 First, the World Bank. 00:01:20.875 --> 00:01:27.861 Free Malaysia Today reports it now expects Malaysia to grow five point one per cent this year. 00:01:27.861 --> 00:01:31.502 That's up from four point four. The reason is AI. 00:01:31.502 --> 00:01:39.826 The World Bank says more than seventy per cent of our export growth in early 2026 came from AI-related products. 00:01:39.826 --> 00:01:42.873 Growth outside those goods has been weak. 00:01:42.873 --> 00:01:50.278 So the chip factories are booming and the kopitiam is not. That matches my street, actually. 00:01:50.278 --> 00:01:53.981 Why do you still have your fine-print face on? 00:01:53.981 --> 00:01:56.935 Because there's a number for the risk. 00:01:56.935 --> 00:02:04.241 The report says a one-point slowdown in American growth cuts Malaysia's growth by point eight. 00:02:04.241 --> 00:02:06.788 Hang on, say that again. 00:02:06.788 --> 00:02:11.187 If the US slows by one point, we lose almost a full point. 00:02:11.187 --> 00:02:15.661 A lot of our boom depends on other people's spending on AI. 00:02:15.661 --> 00:02:21.576 If that cools, we feel it through trade and through money leaving our markets. 00:02:21.576 --> 00:02:29.501 Hmm. Then for a business like mine, the boom is mostly a rumour. What am I supposed to do with this? 00:02:29.501 --> 00:02:36.395 Two things. Don't plan next year on the headline growth number; plan on your own customers. 00:02:36.395 --> 00:02:43.440 And notice the skills line. Firms want AI skills plus maths, communication and collaboration. 00:02:43.890 --> 00:02:49.050 Which is good news for anyone who can write a clear email. 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:57.242 Next, ChatGPT. OpenAI will test visual ads during image generation later this month, in the US only. 00:02:57.242 --> 00:03:02.420 That comes from BleepingComputer, summarised by the AI Weekly newsletter. 00:03:02.420 --> 00:03:07.171 The ads sit beside the picture, labelled and kept separate from it. 00:03:07.171 --> 00:03:13.605 So the free lunch finally comes with a menu. Who actually sees these ads? 00:03:13.605 --> 00:03:21.103 Free users. Paid tiers are shielded. OpenAI also says ChatGPT now has one point two billion weekly users. 00:03:21.103 --> 00:03:27.744 Nobody has said when, or whether, the test reaches Malaysia, and ad pricing wasn't disclosed. 00:03:27.744 --> 00:03:32.938 I'm not convinced it stays in America for long. And my worry is simpler. 00:03:32.938 --> 00:03:40.008 Half my staff use free ChatGPT to write quotations, so now the free version is also a shop window. 00:03:40.008 --> 00:03:45.380 The ads are the small issue. The bigger issue is what your staff paste in. 00:03:45.380 --> 00:03:51.333 A free personal account is not a company account, and you can't see what it keeps. 00:03:51.333 --> 00:03:59.106 Like my cousin running the business WhatsApp on his personal Gmail. Same disease, different app. 00:03:59.106 --> 00:04:05.434 Same cure as well. Pick one tool the company pays for, and retire the personal accounts. 00:04:05.434 --> 00:04:11.906 I couldn't confirm today's Malaysian price for the paid plans, so check before you budget. 00:04:11.906 --> 00:04:17.870 Fine. But if a teh tarik ad shows up on my lorry poster, I'm cancelling, lah. 00:04:18.970 --> 00:04:26.635 Story three is home-grown. YTL AI Labs launched ILMUcode on the second of October, at Universiti Malaya. 00:04:26.635 --> 00:04:30.762 It's an AI coding assistant, and I signed up last night. 00:04:30.762 --> 00:04:37.100 There's a free tier, then Starter at RM25 a month and Pro at RM50, before service tax. 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.037 SoyaCincau covered the launch in detail. 00:04:40.037 --> 00:04:47.085 Eight hundred first-year computing students at UM get RM100 in credits a month for three months. 00:04:47.085 --> 00:04:53.031 The engine is ILMU-GLM-5.3, built in partnership with Z.ai, a Chinese AI company. 00:04:53.031 --> 00:04:58.897 And YTL describes the platform as sovereign AI infrastructure. So it's ours… 00:04:58.897 --> 00:05:01.389 I'd push back on that word, gently. 00:05:01.389 --> 00:05:12.140 ILMU's documentation, quoted by Gotchaa Lab, says data sent to its application programming interface, or API, is processed and stored only in Malaysia. 00:05:12.140 --> 00:05:17.694 That's data residency, which is valuable. The model's roots are still Chinese. 00:05:17.694 --> 00:05:20.501 Fair, I hadn't separated those two. 00:05:20.501 --> 00:05:27.159 For a developer, though, residency is the part the company lawyer asks about first. 00:05:27.159 --> 00:05:31.084 Agreed. And it lands in a busy week for Chinese models. 00:05:31.084 --> 00:05:40.290 Bloomberg Intelligence says DeepSeek's newest Flash model is about three per cent behind the top American model on one benchmark. 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:46.914 So I did a price check. ILMU's Flash model costs RM1.85 per million output tokens. 00:05:46.914 --> 00:05:53.917 DeepSeek's Flash costs about RM4.90 at peak, at roughly four ringgit eight sen to the dollar. 00:05:53.917 --> 00:05:58.584 Two caveats. They're different models, so it isn't like for like. 00:05:58.584 --> 00:06:03.180 And DeepSeek's peak hours cover most of a Malaysian working day. 00:06:03.630 --> 00:06:10.030 Students get free credits, and I get a lecture on tokens. Typical. 00:06:11.130 --> 00:06:15.010 Short pause for a message now, and then the money talk. 00:06:15.010 --> 00:06:17.994 Most AI projects stall in the same place. 00:06:17.994 --> 00:06:26.000 Someone runs a pilot, everyone agrees it's promising, and then nobody owns it. Hitower IT does the other part. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:34.662 AI discovery, a roadmap scoped to your budget, and the actual build, shipped into the workflows your team already uses. 00:06:34.662 --> 00:06:42.231 Strategy to code, no handoffs. Dutch precision, Malaysian know-how. A team you can meet in Kuala Lumpur. 00:06:42.231 --> 00:06:45.652 Book a free discovery call at hitowerit.com.my. 00:06:45.652 --> 00:06:52.130 They come back within one working day with where automation can help and what it's worth. 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:57.093 Right, we're back with policy and money, in budget week. 00:06:57.093 --> 00:07:04.061 On Monday, the Digital Minister told the Dewan Rakyat the AI Governance Bill now comes in early 2027. 00:07:04.061 --> 00:07:08.408 Free Malaysia Today notes it was originally expected this year. 00:07:08.408 --> 00:07:11.392 What do we actually know is in it? 00:07:11.392 --> 00:07:13.734 Officially, a risk-based approach. 00:07:13.734 --> 00:07:19.657 Obligations follow the harm an AI system could cause, not just the industry you're in. 00:07:19.657 --> 00:07:26.546 Some outlets have described tiers and a new enforcement body, but we haven't verified those details. 00:07:26.546 --> 00:07:28.061 Treat them as unknown. 00:07:28.061 --> 00:07:31.823 So a business owner can relax until next year? 00:07:31.823 --> 00:07:38.328 No, and that's my stance today. The AI law is late, but the Personal Data Protection Act is not. 00:07:38.328 --> 00:07:45.578 Since the first of June 2025, it requires breach notification to the Commissioner within seventy-two hours. 00:07:45.578 --> 00:07:49.982 Larger data handlers must also appoint a data protection officer. 00:07:49.982 --> 00:07:54.590 And customer data pasted into a free chatbot is still customer data. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:08:00.766 So the law I should worry about is the one already passed. 00:08:00.766 --> 00:08:01.801 Now, Thursday. 00:08:01.801 --> 00:08:09.196 Budget 2027 is tabled on the ninth, and everything I say next is an ask or a signal, not a decision. 00:08:09.196 --> 00:08:20.438 The Finance Ministry's pre-budget statement in August promised AI literacy and lifelong learning for workers and SMEs, the small and medium enterprises. 00:08:20.438 --> 00:08:26.428 It also said data-centre incentives would be tied to energy and water efficiency. 00:08:26.428 --> 00:08:36.190 On the business side, SME Malaysia asked for one integrated productivity programme covering automation, AI, cloud and cybersecurity. 00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:42.920 Importantly, it wants support beyond equipment, into software, implementation and training. 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:49.694 That last part matters. The licence is cheap. The setup time is what really costs you. 00:08:49.694 --> 00:08:55.286 So here's my listening list. First, any new money for SME digitalisation grants. 00:08:55.286 --> 00:09:02.276 Second, tax treatment for AI software and training. Third, funding for whoever enforces the new law. 00:09:02.276 --> 00:09:06.083 Can I jump in on the second one? 00:09:06.083 --> 00:09:10.839 Okay, but let me finish my thought. Listen for three different words. 00:09:10.839 --> 00:09:19.247 An announcement is a speech, an allocation is money in the budget, and disbursement is money actually reaching businesses. 00:09:19.247 --> 00:09:24.436 Fair. My point is simpler. If you have an AI project ready, start it now. 00:09:24.436 --> 00:09:28.345 A tax break rarely turns a bad project into a good one. 00:09:28.345 --> 00:09:32.623 I hear what you're saying, but timing matters for cash flow. 00:09:32.623 --> 00:09:37.185 A twenty-person firm can wait seventy-two hours for the details. 00:09:37.185 --> 00:09:43.573 Then let's split it. Prepare everything this week, and sign the invoice after Thursday. 00:09:43.573 --> 00:09:46.090 That I can live with. 00:09:47.190 --> 00:09:53.547 Here's today's question. One option is a Chinese-origin model hosted in Malaysia. 00:09:53.547 --> 00:09:57.235 The other is an American model hosted overseas. 00:09:57.235 --> 00:10:03.985 If the cheaper one is only a few per cent behind, why would a small business pay more? 00:10:03.985 --> 00:10:05.385 Let me sharpen it. 00:10:05.385 --> 00:10:13.791 One side says use the cheapest capable model, whatever its origin, and spend the savings on training people. 00:10:13.791 --> 00:10:20.484 The other side says pay for alignment with where your data sits and which rules apply. 00:10:20.484 --> 00:10:24.609 Origin, hosting and law are three separate questions. 00:10:24.609 --> 00:10:33.301 For me, the risk I can see is the monthly bill. The risk I can't see is the one that keeps me up at night. 00:10:33.301 --> 00:10:41.772 And the answer differs for a bakery, a clinic and a bank. A bank employee may not get to choose at all. 00:10:41.772 --> 00:10:47.960 So the real fork is cost against control. Neither side is plainly wrong. 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:51.790 Friday, the AI-YA team takes a position. 00:10:52.890 --> 00:10:53.890 Verdict time. 00:10:53.890 --> 00:11:04.203 Today it's a scheme, the MSME Digital Grant MADANI, run by Bank Simpanan Nasional with MDEC, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation. 00:11:04.203 --> 00:11:12.283 BSN's page says it covers half your invoice, up to RM5,000 per digital service, for up to three services. 00:11:12.283 --> 00:11:16.824 Artificial intelligence is one of nine eligible categories. 00:11:16.824 --> 00:11:25.351 You need six months of trading, sixty per cent Malaysian ownership and at least RM50,000 in annual sales. 00:11:25.351 --> 00:11:29.330 The vendor must also be on MDEC's approved panel. 00:11:29.780 --> 00:11:34.112 Wait. So I can't choose my own vendor? 00:11:34.112 --> 00:11:40.366 Only from the panel. And BSN can ask for proof that the system is actually running. 00:11:40.366 --> 00:11:46.620 My vote is Bayar, because half price on a tool you'd buy anyway is a real discount. 00:11:47.070 --> 00:11:53.138 Bayar, but only after you get two panel quotes and check the price isn't simply set at the cap. 00:11:53.138 --> 00:12:00.510 Hype, for me, because the panel, the paperwork and the blacklist clause eat most of the saving for a business my size. 00:12:01.610 --> 00:12:05.467 One thing to do today, and it takes under an hour. 00:12:05.467 --> 00:12:13.413 Open a spreadsheet and list every AI tool your team uses, including the free ones on personal accounts. 00:12:13.413 --> 00:12:18.253 Add three columns: who uses it, what data goes in, and who pays. 00:12:18.253 --> 00:12:21.807 Mark anything touching customer details in red. 00:12:21.807 --> 00:12:30.050 That one list answers the data protection law today, the AI law next year, and any grant form after Thursday. 00:12:31.150 --> 00:12:38.469 AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. 00:12:38.469 --> 00:12:40.852 Details at ai-ya.my/podcast. 00:12:40.852 --> 00:12:43.079 Tomorrow is work and skills. 00:12:43.079 --> 00:12:51.350 We'll look at which skills Malaysian employers say they want alongside AI, and how to show them on a CV. 00:12:51.800 --> 00:12:58.880 Thank you for spending part of your day with the three of us. Take care, and see you tomorrow on AI-YA Daily.