Ethics, law should be part of Malaysia's first AI faculty - Expert

KUCHING - Malaysia's first Faculty of Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be multidisciplinary and include law and ethics in its teaching, according to Associate Professor Jaspal Kaur.

Jaspal, who is from the School of Law, Policing and Social Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, said the establishment of the faculty is timely and in line with the rapid development of Al.

"We need more centres or faculty of Al; more importantly, these centres should not only focus on computer science and computer engineering but... include other disciplines like media, journalism and law, for instance.

"It has to be multidisciplinary because if you look at the governance of Al and how we will manage it, we have to look at it from not just the viewpoint of computer scientists or engineers. We have to see how it impacts society and citizens; it should be a multi-stakeholder approach," she said.

She said this when met by reporters after presenting a lecture entitled "Legal And Ethical Questions Around Al in Journalism" at the Sarawak Media Conference (SMEC) 2024 recently.

The two-day conference, themed "Media Evolution in the Digital Era," kicked off yesterday with the participation of around 600 local and international attendees.

On May 10, Anwar launched the Al Faculty at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He praised the university's success in establishing the faculty within just four months upon request by the government.

Meanwhile, commenting on the issues of law and Al governance, Jaspal said the problem needs to be matured before legal aspects can be properly addressed.

"I think in this regard (introducing AI law) Malaysia is doing great. Malaysia is taking its time to look at AI governance and not jumping on the bandwagon and saying that we need to put in this law or that law.

"In a sense, we are taking a rather innovative approach of self-governance, self-responsibility and accountability,” she said. - BERNAMA