KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 — The formulation of a law to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and curb the misuse of the technology for criminal purposes needs to be expedited.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission's (MCMC) Derek John Fernandez said the misuse of AI could threaten the public and national well-being.
“The misuse of AI, especially involving deepfakes for spreading lies, can threaten the country's peace and security.
“Hence, the government needs to think about having a regulation that requires all platforms that provide AI services to submit a notification that an image or video displayed is generated by AI,” he said.
Fernandez was speaking to Bernama after the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Joint Policy Dialogue on Industry Regulation and Enforcement in Managing Cybercrime recently.
He added that such regulations will enable the public to know if the image or video they see is genuine or otherwise and can prevent more individuals from becoming victims of online fraud, which has become quite rampant.
Fernandez also stressed that those who provide AI services must take responsibility and devote sufficient resources to ensure that users who access the service use it responsibly.
“All platforms offering and hosting AI services must comply with local laws in the digital space of the country they operate in,” he said.
To this, Fernandez suggested that the government also ensure users' interests and safety are prioritised.
Malaysia should not procrastinate in drafting laws related to AI technology as neighbouring countries like Singapore already have such laws, while Thailand and Indonesia are in the final phase of drafting similar ones.
“Asean digital sovereignty is important in the effort to deal with the misuse of AI by irresponsible parties, national laws for each country and collaboration between all Asean member countries for cyber security are necessary to ensure the effort is more effective,” he said.
Three components of AI should be closely looked at: learning, intelligence, and awareness. Appropriate laws must be enacted to enable Malaysia to be better prepared to face the technology boom.
Fernandez said the learning component involves AI helping humans in making decisions based on the input they are given; intelligence is when AI has the ability to think on par with or better than humans; and awareness is when it has an awareness of itself and its surroundings.
“The intelligence and awareness components may not be there for now, but it is better for us to be prepared to face it with a comprehensive law,” he said.
On the dialogue, Fernandez said it was a good platform for authorities and technology companies to exchange views and find appropriate methods to prevent technology from being misused for criminal purposes.
Various authorities from Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam attended the dialogue, including representatives from technology companies like Microsoft.
— Bernama
