KUALA LUMPUR: The Digital Ministry will look into the need to introduce laws or standards as well as amend existing laws to cover the use of artificial intelligence.
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said, after the launch of the National AI Office (NAIO) next month, it would assess the need to draft legislation or create standards to address issues in AI.
This, he said, would cover personal data, which allows AI to create videos of dead persons with accurate voice recreations.
"If we look at technology, there are indeed many new things, and this includes issues related to personal data. That is something we need to look into.
"We need to see how we can, if necessary, draft laws or standards and so on.
"That is why we have the NAIO, and one of its tasks is to launch a study on what the actual challenges of AI and new technologies are, and whether there is a need to amend laws or create new legislation.
"We are aware of these issues, and other countries have already looked into them specifically. After the launch of the NAIO next month, we will assess the need to draft legislation or create standards to address these issues," he said in the Dewan Rakyat.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Abdul Khalib Abdullah (PN-Rompin) on whether the government would introduce new laws for AI especially when it could create videos of dead persons with accurate voices.
He also asked what guarantees the ministry provides to ensure that the code of ethics and data privacy protection are controlled to prevent leaks.
Gobind said the ministry was also developing seven guidelines through the Personal Data Protection Commissioner, three of which are directly related to AI technology.
This includes guidelines on Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA); Privacy by Design (PbD); and Automated Decision Making (ADM) and Profiling.
"These guidelines can serve as reference documents for Data Controllers in Malaysia, considering the rapid development of AI technology, which heavily relies on high data processing," he said.
He added that the ministry would continue to foster strategic collaborations across the public and private sectors to minimise incidents of personal data breaches in the future through the implementation of various initiatives.
This, he said, included the organisation of AI literacy programmes, the development of regulatory frameworks, and the AI Technology Action Plan 2026-2030.
Gobind said these efforts would ensure that all stakeholders are better prepared to handle any unforeseen incidents.