Malaysia has made a step forward in its artificial intelligence education agenda with the launch of Malaysia's first-ever Faculty of Artificial Intelligence at Universiti Technologi Malaysia(UTM). According to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar, this falls within his recent Madani budget speech, pointing out that it fits into the nation's efforts to enhance AI literacy.
As for the coming year, the government is looking to enhance education and training on AI for all the research universities with an allocation of RM50 million from RM20 million in 2024. Some of the universities to be engaged in this regard are Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
UM will focus its efforts on implementing AI in medicine to deal with such serious diseases as cancer. UPM, together with the National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA), will also create the Malaysian Cryptology Management and Technological Centre in order to tackle increasing risks of cyber attacks related to quantum computing.
As part of Malaysia's aspirations in the semiconductor industry, USM will explore applications on AI in this field as collaborated with the major technology players like Intel and Infineon. UKM should focus on AI usage with linguistic translation functions, also for Bahasa promotion as a primary language in acquiring knowledge.
Moreover, the government will provide tax incentives to private universities and vocational training institutes providing advanced courses on AI, digital technology, robotics, IoT, Data Science, and Fintech.
AI-related R&D under the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will be increased to RM600 million from the 510 million. In addition, funding under the Malaysian Techlympics program to develop young talent in AI and robotics will be supplemented with RM10 million.
