- 5 months ago
Explore the role of purpose-driven Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation in addressing social and environmental challenges across ASEAN. Join the discussion with Arifah Sharifuddin, Director at Tech for Good on how AI can create meaningful change, ensure inclusivity, and deliver measurable impact through Tech for Good initiatives. Learn about the biggest challenges in making AI truly purpose-driven and the vital collaboration between public, private, and civil society sectors.
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00:00Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera. Anda bersama saya Nina Rozman melaporkan secara langsung dari Aslan AI Summit 2025 yang diadakan di MyTech dan kita lihat kesidang kebuncak ini diadakan di MyTech menghipungkan para pemimpin dan wakil industri untuk memkukuhkan lagi dialog antara kerajaan dan juga sektor perniagaan.
00:20Dan kalau kita lihat acara ini memberi tumpuan kepada cabaran dan peluang yang dibawakan oleh kecerdasan buatan AI dan bagaimana untuk kita beri tumpuan untuk kita memastikan kepentingan teknologi ini dapat memajukan kesejahteraan manusia termasuk juga dengan mengangkat manfaat itu, merasai manfaat itu bersama.
00:36Namun kalau kita lihat sepanjang asyari ini diadakan selama dua hari daripada 12 hingga 13 Ogos 2025, kita dapat lihat ucapan tambah juga disampaikan oleh para pemimpin ASEAN dan ucapan rasmi disampaikan oleh yang berbahagia Perdana Menteri Dato' Sri Anwar Ibrahim termasuk juga dengan YB Kementerian Digital iaitu Gobi Singh Dio yang telah menyampaikan ucapan rasmi mereka dan juga menengkankan bagaimanakah seran tahun ini dapat memainkan kerana utama dalam memacu inovasi
01:05terutamanya dalam bidang AI ini dan dalam ucapan utama ini kita lihat berlangsung daripada selama dua hari dan ia telah, sidang kebuncak ini telah direka khusus untuk memberi tumpuan, untuk beri tumpuan untuk memperkukuhkan lagi dan mempercepatkan lagi kerjasama serantau dan memasuk lagi inovasi dalam bidang AI ini.
01:23Sudah tentu banyak lagi inisiatif dan acara yang menarik yang menanti pada hari ini dan dalam saya meniaga awal ini kita akan membincangkan bagaimanakah cabaran yang perlu diatasi terutamanya dalam bidang AI ini.
01:35apa lagi peluang yang boleh kita ambil untuk memacu masa depan keseluruhan ASEAN dan keseluruhan ekosistem AI ini.
01:43Dengan itu saya mempersilahkan tetamu sudah bersedia bersama saya untuk membincangkan perkara ini adalah Arifah Syarifuddin, Director ataupun kita lihat Director at Tech for Good.
01:52I want to say thank you very much Arifah for joining me.
01:54definitely this is a collaboration we can see in the ASEAN context and talking about the ASEAN context, how do you see the growth of AI innovation right now happening in Malaysia, ASEAN and across the world?
02:09First of all, thank you for having me this morning. We're so happy to be here. Okay, when you want to talk about the growth of AI in this region, I think what's important for us to note is the growth has to be purposeful, right?
02:24So it needs to be a purpose driven innovation in AI. From the perspective of the Institute because we are a non-profit think tank, we are our areas of focus are tech policy and digital economy and then bringing the perspective of Southeast Asia region in this the whole development of technology for the good of the people.
02:43So three areas for purpose driven innovation for AI. So number one is definitely how do you do inclusive AI development, right? Making sure that the underserved community are also involved in the development of AI.
03:02not just as a consumer, but how AI can also enable people to become more productive and become a producer of AI in this region. So that's one context. Another one is on how AI development needs to be done in a safe manner.
03:22I think this is something that we are aware of how AI bias is happening in the global sector, right? And a lot of the large language models which are coming from the global providers, they are all in potentially just English language.
03:43In ASEAN or in Southeast Asia, we are so diverse and so unique. There are like a thousand languages in this region alone, right? So there are many opportunities there. How do we localize that context?
03:56How do we develop something that is done more safely and ensuring that local contexts are taken into consideration when people are consuming all these AI tools and technology?
04:06And then of course, when I mentioned about local contextualization, it is also something that Southeast Asia is so ripe for. We are a young region for now, right? As a region, we have a lot of youth and we should actually start reaping the dividends of having youth, a large number of youth in this region to actually come up with AI solutions which are
04:36are more relevant to this region.
04:38And definitely, I love your point that you mentioned that how can we localize AI and innovation as we know that ASEAN is very diversified and not only how can we localize the innovation but how can we do it in a safe manner?
04:54But talking about AI, definitely, we want to know the purpose of it, not only to innovate but also help us overcome any obstacles or challenges. But how do AI, do you foresee, can overcome complex challenges, especially in the social and even environmental challenges?
05:12I think this is a good question to ask now, right? In this region alone, we see many societal challenges. We are experiencing climate-related challenges which are actually changing the weather. We are experiencing rain in the middle of the year as opposed to towards the end of the year. So those are all very relevant and real experiences that we are experiencing now.
05:37The key here is actually, it's not just about the system, it's about how we collaborate or how we create. So systems don't really collaborate, right? It's actually people who collaborate. So I think that's the most important thing that we should never forget.
05:52And with, for example, complex problems, right? The solutioning, the ideation comes from people. Maybe I want to give one example in Indonesia, for example, right? There are severe shortages of doctors in Indonesia. It's well documented. Like for 1,000 people, Indonesian people, there's only 0.72 doctors.
06:21Not even one doctor per 1,000 people. So it's actually, that's how, that's the large challenge and gap that is facing the healthcare systems in Indonesia. So how the Indonesia is tackling this, they have a corporate foundation that has come together with venture capitalists to actually encourage local innovations to come up with solutions to address these key societal challenges.
06:50challenges. Because when the challenge is so big, the likelihood for the new products that are coming out, the new technology products in healthcare coming out is very high.
06:57They don't have the capacity to carry it. But when you produce new solution and the solution is to address a large problem, the likelihood for that product to survive is high. Because you have a large customer base. You have a large addressable market that you can actually ensure that the technology is living. So that's one example.
07:09And you also mentioned about the participation youth in AI innovations. That's very important because they are our future. They will bring forward and they will create. How will our future will be in the future?
07:21But how do we get them excited? Because sometimes AI we upgrade, they become
07:39they become complex, they become hard to understand. So maybe they say, this is too high tech for me. But how can we convince especially the youth that AI, even though that we say of scams, it's also being pushed by AI, but to help them understand the awareness that important to balance both the risk and the opportunity in AI. How can we help them understand more?
08:07You know, talking about youth, it is actually very timely that this year, the Institute are actually engaging with youth to find out from them what matters to the youth of today and how they want to tackle the current problems and how it will actually help in ensuring that things will not get worse in the future.
08:32So basically, that's just the gist of it, right? When we engage with the youth of Malaysia, youth of Indonesia, youth of Philippines, everybody is saying the same thing.
08:43The most common findings that we found is that when you talk about technological advancement, it is really about bridging the gap of what the industry is needing versus what the universities are producing.
08:58So that was one main common discussion. And the industry is basically the engine that's running every country, right? They are the revenue generators, they are the job providers.
09:10So the challenge is actually from the respective, as a member states, for example, how do you produce enough talent to meet all this new demand in technology and digital economy?
09:24And the demand is not just technical skills like programmers and things like that. It's not just that. It's also your competencies, your soft skills, all the accompanying skills that is not really technical. Creativity, for example, creative thinking.
09:39thinking. So how do you do that? And how do you make sure that when the students graduate, when the youth graduate from the university, they are ready for the industry and the industry wants them?
09:46Yeah. So that was our current finding. And we're going to continue having this conversation with other youth in, for example, in Vietnam, we're going there as well. Singapore is happening towards the end of this month.
10:01And then there's another one in Indonesia, I think. Yeah. That's a very good point that you just share with us. We only need not to look at the, maybe the study, the education's part, but that's another part, but also the soft skills.
10:19Yeah. Their credibility, awareness, efficiency. It definitely is very important. It's not just by subjects. We look at the subjects and can be created, can be instilled within this.
10:30Yes. So we need to ensure all aspect is being instilled with the youth, young people. And we want to make things, this innovation growth inclusive, as you mentioned in your points.
10:42How can we ensure that AI development is truly inclusive? As you mentioned before, it's not the system that collaborators, but the people.
10:49It's not the people. Yeah, the people. Okay. Maybe let's take the perspective of innovation enabling inclusivity versus inclusivity enabling innovation, right?
11:06I think these two, they work, they need to work together, right? When you involve diverse people in the process of innovation, you will come up with a better product.
11:21So that's inclusion for innovation. When you innovate to ensure that you address the larger societal challenges, that's where innovation is for inclusion.
11:37There are actually many examples. Already, you know, in the market right now, one of it is actually, okay, actually the easiest example, right, would be things like, well, would be, okay, we use e-healing.
11:59We use e-healing, right? We use e-healing. One of the bigger e-healing platform in this region, they have actually worked with the drivers to actually improve the map that's available on the e-healing app itself.
12:12So that is one way where you actually enable inclusion for innovation addressing local contacts. Yeah, so that's one example.
12:22Yeah, the provider, connect with the provider also. Correct. Like the drivers, what's your input, what's there to improve, what's the challenges you're facing.
12:30Yeah. And then the tech provider, the AI provider can also upgrade. Correct.
12:35Not only from the provider but also from the consumer as well. So we take all of it into the consideration and we make the platform better. Correct.
12:42For them. And looking ahead, which AI potential incites you the most in solving societal and even sustainable issue in ASEAN?
12:51Which AI? Which AI potential that excites you in the future?
12:58The potential that excites me the most is actually, aside from hyper-personalization, which is already proliferating right now.
13:07Hyper-personalization meaning when you use an app, the app already knows, intuitive, it's intuitive. It already knows what you want, what you need.
13:16And the easiest example would be the e-commerce platform, your social media, they are already using AI, even including when you want to book your trips, right?
13:28So all those platforms are already enabling AI for hyper-personalization.
13:32Another one that I'm actually most excited about is on large language models and contextualizing for local use.
13:39I think you are aware that yesterday there was a launch of Malaysia's local language model, right?
13:47Yes.
13:48Language model, correct.
13:49Correct.
13:50So done by a couple of companies here, and then one is like focusing on Sharia, focusing on the Grand Versus, and then they are also an initiative by Singapore, whereby they are also developing a local large language model.
14:04So these are all initiatives localized, which are meant to ensure that local contacts are taken into consideration when people communicate and when people consume the product.
14:18Yeah.
14:19That is very definitely an essential aspect that we need to take a look at.
14:23If you could give any one big message to us and policymakers for the AI common good, what would it be?
14:32The big message is definitely about for policymakers to ensure that AI development is safe.
14:42However, it does not deter innovation.
14:46So I think that from our observation in some other countries is whether you put a strong law on AI or you come up with soft laws to actually enable the innovation to continue.
15:00Yeah.
15:01So basically that's it.
15:02All right.
15:03I want to say thank you very much to Arifah Sherepuddin, the director of tech goods.
15:06Definitely, this is a very important sharing.
15:08As my understanding, you have a social at 10 a.m.
15:11I shall release you and I'll see you again.
15:12Thank you very much.
15:13Thank you so much, Arifah.
15:14Okay, baik.
15:15Ito adalah perkongsian, sedikit perkongsian mengenai untuk kita memahami bagaimanakah apakah antara cabaran dan peluang dalam bidang kecerdasan buatan AI.
15:23Dan bagaimana untuk kita memastikan teknologi AI dan inovasi ini dapat memajukan kesejahteraan Malaysia termasuk memastikan manfaat ini dapat dinikmati bersama.
15:32Dan teruskan bersama kami untuk dapatkan perkembangan Sidang Kemuncak AI Asal Malaysia 2025 dari semasa ke semasa.
15:39dan kami ada rakan tugas iaitu Hasim Mohamad yang akan berada on ground di sini untuk bawa ke anda perkembangan langsung.
15:45Dan jangan terima mana selepas ini rakan tugas akan ambil alih iaitu Harifah Sherep di studio selepas kita berhenti rehat.
15:51Terima kasih.
15:52Terima kasih.
15:53Terima kasih.
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