Can Malaysian universities push the AI revolution?

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) already has an impact on our lives but most Malaysian universities have not really started programmes and research to investigate AI except perhaps in specific modules in their IT departments.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) is developing an AI studies centre and in February higher education minister Zambry Abdul Kadir said the government is looking at a special government-funded AI polytechnic.

For now most of the 1.5 million students in Malaysia’s higher education system will have no exposure to AI through their courses.

There are some ad hoc activities in AI at a relatively low level in Malaysia’s universities, very little research, very little cross-disciplinary learning and no thought leadership to evaluate the potential socio-economic impact.

One area that must be understood urgently is the scope and speed of adoption of AI and how it might have an impact on the economy by replacing and changing jobs.

Evidence is needed to measure the economic and social impact so that policy can be designed based on how people are likely to respond.

We need to understand what options are available for making a living if jobs are replaced as well as the implications of that on social and economic development.

We must be realistic and understand that any science or technology-based research from Malaysia on developing AI technology applications is likely to be very limited.

Social and behavioural research and developing skills in adoption and responsible use of AI will be much more valuable.

Malaysian universities produce very little industry-relevant research, except perhaps in palm oil and Islamic finance, because industry does not fund universities to do it.

The same is true of AI, so there are only low level collaborations which do not really facilitate economic benefits.

Malaysian universities have no obvious expertise in AI and so they will not attract investment and technology transfer in this area.

They will buy AI applications or they will use AI brought here by foreign companies but will not have access to the specific details of it.

Government policies and funding do not help AI research because funding is too limited and driving AI through government plans is almost certain to be ineffective.

Academics themselves must be proficient in AI to integrate it into curricula. They are not.

The many opportunities to use AI for course development and content creation as well as for research have simply not begun in most universities.

Regulations slow down creating new programmes, academics have insufficient awareness and training in AI and educators are sceptical that AI should be their core mission as opposed to industrial trainers.

Academics are also poorly paid and most resist retraining because it is very hard work for low rewards.

Those who do retrain in AI will usually get a better job in industry rather than continue on low salaries in universities.

By removing these barriers in the system, the education institutions, industry and the market will adopt AI if it makes business and economic sense to do so.

The government must support research to understand what the barriers are and how to remove them and crucially to look at what will happen in the wider economy if AI replaces jobs so that positive policies can ensure people benefit from AI and still have an income.

AI is with us and will continue to have an impact on business and the economy quickly whatever the government does. So government interference is not necessary nor will it ever be sufficient.

The government must support evidence-based research to create policies to deal with the impact of AI so that it will benefit people, their families and our communities and not harm us. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.