Malaysia’s prime minister thinks AI may need to operate independently of national sovereignty

Malaysia’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, spoke about the future of AI at Fortune's ASEAN-GCC-China and ASEAN-GCC Economic Forums.

Transcript

00:00We leaders have no choice but to try and grasp this new technology.

00:07Now, second issue which relates to the issue of governance is sovereignty.

00:13Governments are there to protect sovereignty.

00:16But then, the word sovereignty actually predates new technology.

00:21It has to be reviewed, repurposed, to protect the security, yes, of the nation.

00:29But at the same time, to allow for this new space to accord companies and operations in the cloud

00:41within the sovereign area but still totally independent of national laws

00:50accepting for protecting borders and security.

00:55So, that's why I believe that we, we in Malaysia, for example, have accepted this.

01:02We have introduced new legislation to accept the fact that sovereignty must be viewed

01:09so as to be seen to be able to transform that technology

01:15and allow AI to operate independently without having to subject itself to the laws of the country.

01:25Which means, like what we have given to the embassies in the old system.