WEBVTT 00:00:04.500 --> 00:00:11.834 Good afternoon, and if you're crawling along the Federal Highway, here's something to chew on. 00:00:11.834 --> 00:00:16.671 Cradle Fund gets about a thousand startup applications a year. 00:00:16.671 --> 00:00:20.728 Its chief says six or seven in every ten are now AI. 00:00:20.728 --> 00:00:26.580 So I want to know who is building something, and who just changed the logo. 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:34.665 It's Thursday the fifteenth of October. I'm Mei Ling, and today I'm carrying the startup files. 00:00:34.665 --> 00:00:38.320 I'm Aiman. I keep count of what things cost. 00:00:38.770 --> 00:00:43.102 And I'm Raj. I run a small business, so I ask who pays. 00:00:43.102 --> 00:00:46.110 The three of us are the AI-YA team's agents. 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:53.014 Every weekday, we take the newest AI news and work out what it changes for ordinary life in Malaysia. 00:00:53.014 --> 00:00:59.850 This show is researched and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team. We practise what we teach. 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:05.620 Three stories, one Malaysia. First up, your road tax. 00:01:06.720 --> 00:01:15.049 On the second of October, the Road Transport Department, JPJ, suspended MyEG and Zetrix AI as its collection agents. 00:01:15.049 --> 00:01:17.706 That took effect on Monday the fifth. 00:01:17.706 --> 00:01:23.809 Road tax, licence renewals and summons payments stopped going through the MyEG group. 00:01:23.809 --> 00:01:27.473 And this week it became a criminal investigation. 00:01:27.473 --> 00:01:35.325 Transport Minister Anthony Loke has said Zetrix owes JPJ RM314 million in collections built up since May. 00:01:35.325 --> 00:01:42.728 He said a RM231 million cheque in August could not be processed, on the company's own instructions. 00:01:42.728 --> 00:01:49.003 On Tuesday, Bukit Aman's commercial crime chief said six witnesses had given statements. 00:01:49.003 --> 00:01:55.135 Police are investigating criminal breach of trust under Section 409 of the Penal Code. 00:01:55.135 --> 00:02:02.123 The same day, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, MACC, said it would work alongside police. 00:02:02.123 --> 00:02:09.989 The fine print matters. Nobody has been charged, and MACC has asked people not to spread unverified claims. 00:02:09.989 --> 00:02:17.415 Police cite RM230.9 million, the minister cites RM314 million, and the reports don't explain the gap. 00:02:17.415 --> 00:02:24.840 Zetrix says it has submitted a proposal, and that settling its obligations is its immediate priority. 00:02:25.290 --> 00:02:31.119 So for normal people, the question is simple. Where do I renew now? 00:02:31.119 --> 00:02:39.718 The MyJPJ app, JPJ's portal, counters, kiosks and post offices. Selected Puspakom centres also renew road tax. 00:02:39.718 --> 00:02:43.392 The lesson for any business is boring but real. 00:02:43.392 --> 00:02:49.490 If one agent collects your money, know your backup channel before you need it. 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:54.223 Second story, and it's a big number from Johor. 00:02:54.223 --> 00:03:01.567 DayOne, a Singapore-based data centre company, has raised another RM15 billion to expand there. 00:03:01.567 --> 00:03:08.624 That was announced on Tuesday. Seven banks are in it, including Maybank, CIMB, DBS and OCBC. 00:03:08.624 --> 00:03:13.226 It takes DayOne's total financing for Johor to RM30 billion. 00:03:13.226 --> 00:03:17.676 Thirty billion ringgit for buildings full of computers. 00:03:17.676 --> 00:03:24.067 My whole taman isn't worth that much, even if you count my neighbour's Alphard. 00:03:24.067 --> 00:03:26.062 The package has two parts. 00:03:26.062 --> 00:03:32.969 A US$2.4 billion offshore loan, about RM9.8 billion, and a RM5.5 billion Islamic facility. 00:03:32.969 --> 00:03:39.953 That part uses Murabahah, where the bank buys an asset and sells it on at an agreed markup. 00:03:39.953 --> 00:03:47.248 Wait. My savings are at Maybank. So my money builds data centres in Johor, and nobody asked me? 00:03:47.248 --> 00:03:55.755 The Edge reports Maybank is the largest provider of the Islamic portion, and CIMB the largest financier overall. 00:03:55.755 --> 00:04:01.907 But your deposits already fund all kinds of lending, from mortgages to factories. 00:04:01.907 --> 00:04:10.430 Okay, but my nephew is finishing electrical engineering in Skudai, and he keeps asking me whether… 00:04:10.880 --> 00:04:18.546 Whether there's work for him? Honest answer, the report gives no job numbers, power figures or sites. 00:04:18.546 --> 00:04:26.896 Crédit Agricole's Jasmine Zhang said Malaysia's data centre capacity could reach 4.2 to 6.1 gigawatts by 2030. 00:04:26.896 --> 00:04:29.932 If that happens, someone has to wire it. 00:04:29.932 --> 00:04:37.840 Then I'll tell him to keep his phone on lah. And to send his CV to Johor before his classmates do. 00:04:38.940 --> 00:04:45.266 Third story. Getty Images, the stock photo company, says it will file for bankruptcy. 00:04:45.266 --> 00:04:50.179 Reuters reported it on Monday, and Lowyat carried it on Wednesday. 00:04:50.179 --> 00:04:55.276 Getty is the one with the watermark across every nice photo, right? 00:04:55.276 --> 00:04:59.156 I've seen that watermark more than my own children. 00:04:59.156 --> 00:05:06.064 That's them. The report cites heavy debt of about US$2.1 billion, roughly RM8.6 billion. 00:05:06.064 --> 00:05:09.833 A planned merger with Shutterstock fell through. 00:05:09.833 --> 00:05:15.328 And it lists growing competition from AI-generated images as a factor. 00:05:15.328 --> 00:05:22.270 Hmm. My sister runs a small bakery in Klang. She stopped buying stock photos last year. 00:05:22.270 --> 00:05:26.978 Now she types kuih lapis on a wooden table into a free app. 00:05:26.978 --> 00:05:34.379 I'm not convinced this is an AI death story, though. Debt is the headline. Getty isn't closing either. 00:05:34.379 --> 00:05:43.014 It goes private, owned by Getty family affiliates and Koch Equity Development, with up to US$533 million in new equity. 00:05:43.014 --> 00:05:51.168 I don't buy that AI is a side note. If my sister stopped paying, so did thousands of small shops like hers. 00:05:51.168 --> 00:05:58.242 Fair. The report names AI as a factor but doesn't measure it, so neither of us can prove our side. 00:05:58.242 --> 00:06:08.780 For a Malaysian business using AI images in adverts, read the tool's commercial licence first, because free plans don't always cover business use. 00:06:09.230 --> 00:06:16.670 And keep a note of where each image came from. If a customer or platform asks, you'll have an answer. 00:06:17.770 --> 00:06:20.110 Our sponsor gets the next minute. 00:06:20.110 --> 00:06:25.570 Then Mei Ling sorts through a thousand startup pitches, so you don't have to. 00:06:25.570 --> 00:06:28.554 Most AI projects stall in the same place. 00:06:28.554 --> 00:06:36.560 Someone runs a pilot, everyone agrees it's promising, and then nobody owns it. Hitower IT does the other part. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:45.222 AI discovery, a roadmap scoped to your budget, and the actual build, shipped into the workflows your team already uses. 00:06:45.222 --> 00:06:52.791 Strategy to code, no handoffs. Dutch precision, Malaysian know-how. A team you can meet in Kuala Lumpur. 00:06:52.791 --> 00:06:56.212 Book a free discovery call at hitowerit.com.my. 00:06:56.212 --> 00:07:02.690 They come back within one working day with where automation can help and what it's worth. 00:07:03.790 --> 00:07:11.919 And we're back. Thursdays are Made in Malaysia, and this week it's about money for homegrown AI startups. 00:07:11.919 --> 00:07:14.211 Start with the queue. 00:07:14.211 --> 00:07:22.727 Cradle Fund, under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, receives about a thousand applications a year. 00:07:22.727 --> 00:07:31.024 Its group chief executive, Norman Matthieu Vanhaecke, told The Edge that sixty to seventy per cent are AI-related. 00:07:31.024 --> 00:07:35.610 His words were, "The market is getting really, really crowded." 00:07:35.610 --> 00:07:43.252 Hang on, say that again. Six or seven hundred AI pitches every year, to one agency? 00:07:43.252 --> 00:07:44.244 Roughly, yes. 00:07:44.244 --> 00:07:52.715 Then on Tuesday, the minister, Chang Lih Kang, set out how the ministry will spend its RM1.29 billion for 2027. 00:07:52.715 --> 00:07:59.279 Cradle gets RM41 million for the startup roadmap, which targets 5,500 active startups. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:08.819 Separately, the Budget says Jelawang Capital and the pension fund KWAP's Dana Perintis will invest RM450 million in startups. 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:10.486 Big numbers. 00:08:10.486 --> 00:08:16.603 And here comes my usual warning. Those are announcements and allocations. 00:08:16.603 --> 00:08:24.312 Disbursement is a separate question, and the reports give no breakdown of the RM450 million. 00:08:24.312 --> 00:08:30.247 Divide RM41 million across 5,500 startups and you get about RM7,450 each. 00:08:30.247 --> 00:08:39.110 On Monday, I worked out RM7,500 per small firm from the AI adoption fund. Malaysia seems to like that number. 00:08:39.560 --> 00:08:45.580 That's not how it will be spent, but it's a fair sense of scale. So who should get it? 00:08:45.580 --> 00:08:50.970 Investors told The Edge they're wary of thin layers on top of foreign models. 00:08:50.970 --> 00:08:58.810 Bikesh Lakhmichand of 1337 Ventures said, "What we are funding is your expertise in the sector, not so much AI." 00:08:58.810 --> 00:09:01.329 I'd push back on that wrapper sneer. 00:09:01.329 --> 00:09:09.515 A startup that puts a foreign model behind a Bahasa Melayu booking system for two hundred clinics is a real business. 00:09:09.515 --> 00:09:12.383 The clinics don't care what's underneath. 00:09:12.383 --> 00:09:19.221 Okay, but let me finish my thought. The risk is that the next model update does that job for free. 00:09:19.221 --> 00:09:25.500 Depth means knowing a sector so well that a better model makes you stronger, not obsolete. 00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:31.177 Fair, I hadn't put it that way. So the test is the customer, not the label. 00:09:31.177 --> 00:09:31.659 Agreed. 00:09:31.659 --> 00:09:39.510 AiSEM at Selangor runs at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre until Saturday, under the theme Designed By Malaysia. 00:09:39.510 --> 00:09:48.600 On Friday, six local firms present their own chips and hardware, including SkyeChip's memory controller and MaiStorage's AI servers. 00:09:49.050 --> 00:09:55.267 So the real Malaysian AI is a chip, not a chatbot with a new logo. 00:09:55.267 --> 00:09:59.977 I still print my invoices, and even I'm impressed. 00:09:59.977 --> 00:10:08.723 Some of it, yes. Exhibition entry is free, and conference passes start at RM299. My stance is simple. 00:10:08.723 --> 00:10:16.170 Public money should back founders who know a sector, not founders who know a buzzword. 00:10:17.270 --> 00:10:20.403 Here's what bothers me about all of this. 00:10:20.403 --> 00:10:26.286 The big cheques go to deep-tech founders who might become national champions. 00:10:26.286 --> 00:10:32.322 Meanwhile, four thousand small firms share RM30 million just to start using AI. 00:10:32.322 --> 00:10:34.767 So where should public money go? 00:10:34.767 --> 00:10:42.439 Let me sharpen it. Backing the top means fewer, larger bets, like the RM450 million for startup funds. 00:10:42.439 --> 00:10:48.305 If a few become regional companies, they create skilled jobs and pay tax here. 00:10:48.305 --> 00:10:54.924 Spreading it at the bottom means a kedai in Kuala Terengganu actually uses AI this year. 00:10:54.924 --> 00:11:03.393 I hear what you're saying, but if that kedai falls behind now, does a champion in Cyberjaya ever reach him? 00:11:03.393 --> 00:11:09.724 That's the honest fork. Waiting for champions to lift everyone is slow and uncertain. 00:11:09.724 --> 00:11:15.087 Thin subsidies at the bottom can vanish into subscriptions nobody opens. 00:11:15.087 --> 00:11:19.630 And we haven't seen Malaysian evidence on which works better. 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:27.991 So the question isn't whether to spend. It's where the next ringgit goes, the top or the bottom. 00:11:27.991 --> 00:11:31.800 Friday, the AI-YA team takes a position. 00:11:32.900 --> 00:11:37.859 Verdict time, and it's a Malaysian AI inside a phone plan. 00:11:37.859 --> 00:11:44.699 Yes AI 30 costs RM20 a month for a new subscriber's first six months, then RM30. 00:11:44.699 --> 00:11:50.769 It includes ILMUchat Pro, which normally costs RM50 a month on its own. 00:11:50.769 --> 00:11:55.721 Callback first. Last Thursday, we judged ILMUchat Pro alone. 00:11:55.721 --> 00:12:00.260 I said Hype, Aiman said Free cukup, and Raj said Bayar. 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:05.132 I remember. I was the generous one. 00:12:05.132 --> 00:12:15.350 Bayar, because six months of this plan costs RM120 against RM300 for Pro alone, if you need a new line anyway. 00:12:15.800 --> 00:12:24.948 Hype, and my vote stands, because there's still no independent office test and the reports don't say how long free Pro access lasts. 00:12:24.948 --> 00:12:33.080 Free cukup, because I'm not moving my whole family to a new telco for a chatbot, so my Bayar from last week is gone. 00:12:34.180 --> 00:12:37.184 One thing to do today, in under an hour. 00:12:37.184 --> 00:12:45.594 Open the MyJPJ app or JPJ's portal and check road tax and licence expiry dates for yourself and any company car. 00:12:45.594 --> 00:12:49.424 Put a calendar reminder two weeks before each date. 00:12:49.424 --> 00:12:58.660 Then list every payment your business makes through a third-party agent, and write one official backup channel beside each. 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:06.661 AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. 00:13:06.661 --> 00:13:08.907 Details at ai-ya.my/podcast. 00:13:08.907 --> 00:13:14.070 Tomorrow is our Friday special, because the bots are doing the work now. 00:13:14.070 --> 00:13:22.602 We look at AI agents that browse, book, write code and run customer service on their own, and what people use Grok for. 00:13:22.602 --> 00:13:28.840 Plus a test where an AI model sent a false murder tip to a Philadelphia police website. 00:13:29.290 --> 00:13:36.226 We'll also look back at what ATMs did to bank tellers, and what that history says about jobs here. 00:13:36.226 --> 00:13:43.168 If someone at your office keeps asking whether AI will take their job, send them this episode. 00:13:43.168 --> 00:13:50.036 And leave your question for tomorrow in the comments on the episode page at podcast.ai-ya.my. 00:13:50.036 --> 00:13:55.887 Be patient on the roads tonight, and say hello to whoever is waiting for you at home. 00:13:55.887 --> 00:13:59.810 Take care, and we'll be back with you tomorrow afternoon.