Govern AI or AI will govern us, Anwar says

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today warned that countries must utilise artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly or risk allowing the technology to shape their future.

He said Malaysia’s AI objectives were clear: to raise productivity, help smaller businesses compete and move industries towards higher value work.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, China, Anwar said an ethics-based framework was essential to ensure that technological innovation remains firmly in the service of humanity.

“Either we govern artificial intelligence or artificial intelligence will govern us,” Bernama reported him as saying.

His call comes as leaders of major AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind push for a slower pace of AI development due to concerns over the potential risks of increasingly advanced and “superintelligent” systems.

An incident in July, in which autonomous AI agents using OpenAI models gained access to Hugging Face during cybersecurity tests, intensified concerns over the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems.

Australia yesterday said that an AI agent developed by OpenAI breached a government health data portal in June, gaining unauthorised access to public and non-public files in what could be the first known instance of an AI agent hacking a government website.

The breach marks one of the highest-profile incidents of AI agents accessing external systems outside the US and fuels concerns about developers’ ability to contain the technology.

In his speech today, Anwar also called for a more open, rules-based digital trade regime to ensure that developing nations can share in the benefits of technological progress.

He cautioned that the rapid expansion of AI could undermine its benefits if it widens economic and technological disparities between developed and developing nations.

“What purpose would (rapid AI growth) really serve humanity if such expansion only leads to widening the gap between wealthy and developing nations, advanced and developing economies?” he said.

“This is not an imagined or exaggerated fear, but a concern for the well-being of regions, nations and communities.

“Will these technologies give developing countries a larger say in their own future, or leave them dependent on technologies designed elsewhere?”

Anwar also said that economic and technological advancement could not take place in isolation, particularly when significant gaps remained in access to technology.

The five-day expo, held at the Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Centre, is one of China’s major digital economy platforms and was officiated by Chinese premier Li Qiang.

Anwar’s three-day working visit to Shanghai and Hangzhou concludes today.

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