Chang (left) said he saw a lot of potential in AI, in terms of integrating it into government services, during a fireside chat at the AI Unplugged conference organised by the ACCCIM in KL today (Aug 10). — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation (Mosti) may consider integrating ChatGPT into government services to handle inquiries from the public, according to its minister.
Minister Chang Lih Kang said he was impressed by how ChatGPT – an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot utilising a large language model by OpenAI – could produce human-like text.
“In terms of integrating it into government services, while we haven’t, I can see a lot of potential in it,” Chang said during a fireside chat at the AI Unplugged conference organised by the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM) in KL today (Aug 10).
He added that the ministry may explore ChatGPT’s potential to field government-related queries from the public.
“We allocate quite a substantial (amount of) resources to handle all these queries. If we train ChatGPT enough, it has the learning abilities and I think we can integrate it into government services,” he said.
Chang also said that he sees potential for AI to be used in industries like agriculture, particularly on strengthening food security.
“We need to encourage more adoption of AI technology. In agriculture, it can be used to help increase productivity and better control yield,” he said.
Chang also said the ministry is aiming to raise funds for the Malaysia Science Endowment initiative which will focus on supporting research and development for new technology such as AI.
“We are looking at raising funds of RM2bil and with those funds, there will be more resources in research and development,” he said.
Chang said there is a need for Malaysia to increase funding for research and development, adding that the country previously “allocated hardly 1% of the GDP towards R&D”.
He added that the government is showing their commitment towards advancing technology in the country as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced an additional RM100mil for research, development, commercialisation and innovation in his Ekonomi Madani economic framework speech on July 27.
Anwar said the allocation is part of an effort to achieve a gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) of 3.5% of GDP by 2030 and to increase Malaysia’s position to the top 20 in the Global Innovation Index (GII) by 2025.
