This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 8, 2024 - July 14, 2024

The building of trust is a fundamental concern when it comes to new technology. This is especially true for artificial intelligence (AI), which faces issues ranging from security threats, such as deepfakes, to the reliability of the data it generates.

Addressing these concerns often involves regulation, yet this approach has its challenges. Regulators face difficulties in keeping pace with the rapid advancements in AI, making their tasks complex, costly and often ineffective.

Identifying key issues and determining jurisdiction are significant hurdles in the regulatory process, said Datuk Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin, director of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), at CelcomDigi’s second annual Trust Circle.

“One of the key areas of concern [with new technology] is always about building trust. And that trust is not only in terms of security but also in the delivery of service,” he pointed out.

“Regulating will be difficult, expensive and probably not effective. The law has its limitations in terms of identifying what the key issues are. Secondly, a question of jurisdiction — who has jurisdiction over what?”

This challenge has resulted in the rise of what Zulkarnain called “co-regulation”, which sees all stakeholders — from regulators and corporations to consumers — working together to address problems.

Citing the use of AI in scams involving phone calls to unsuspecting members of the public as an example, he said service providers and consumers alike are affected by such breaches of trust in terms of their reputation and private information. This means these parties should have a say in how AI is handled in this space.

“So [from] that perspective, the more forward-looking regulations would be to have a code of ethics [and] coming up with standards. I think that will be the key area in terms of developing or regulating AI in the future and that is currently the conversation,” he added.

Zulaikha Kadim, a senior researcher at Mimos Bhd, offered her perspective on the state of AI development in Malaysia and where it stands compared with the rest of the world. Citing Oxford Insights’ Government AI Readiness Index, she said the country ranks No 6 in Asia, behind Singapore, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, in terms of AI preparedness, and is in the top 23 globally.

These rankings are based on the governments’ AI vision and policy, the technology and whether the people can utilise it to achieve this vision, as well as the infrastructure and the availability and accessibility of data.

“For the past three years, we have seen that Malaysia is actually progressing well in terms of building AI integration in the country. The government is also coming up with AI guidelines and ethical codes,” said Zulaikha.

On another note, she pointed out that industries that have been traditionally reliant on manual labour in the country, such as oil palm plantations, are adopting AI, indicating that there is broad acceptance of the technology.

At the panel discussion titled “Driving Trust and Innovation from the Top”, Cisco’s technical leader of security and digital trust Christopher Chew said trust is a complex, non-linear process that requires collective effort.

“Trust is not linear, neither [is it] binary. It takes a village to build trust. It takes an enterprise or an industry to build trust, especially in what is perceived as a heavily regulated industry,” he pointed out.

KPJ Healthcare’s general manager of IT operations Ramana Ramakrishna noted that trust is intangible and hard to quantify. He said possible “indicators of trust” for companies include response time and policy adherence.

Ultimately, key risk indicators (KRIs) are important barometers of success when measuring something intangible, he added.

KRIs measure potential operational and strategic risks to the business. If the risks are high and put both the business and the consumer in jeopardy, there will be less trust in the process.

Adilah Junid, director of legal and government affairs at Microsoft Malaysia, said that addressing these KRIs and building trust with consumers is about balancing the various aspects of a company’s operations. “The products and services that you create [are] the culmination of all the various elements that work in your company, including the elements that preserve the integrity of your customers’ data and protect the safety of their personal information.”

As such, companies need to perform a balancing act between short- and long-term goals, she added.

Short-term goals include pushing for technological innovation like AI while managing the high risks, whereas long-term goals include building a trusted relationship with consumers to create a sustainable business strategy. Long-term goals are important, but a company needs short-term goals to achieve its long-term ones, said Adilah. “What helps keep that balance is having clear values, a clear vision and a clear strategy that incorporates the need to protect and safeguard your customers as one of its key tenets.”

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