Pahang rep turns to AI for ECRL ticket fares insights
KUANTAN: An appointed assemblyman surprised his colleagues at the Pahang State Legislative Assembly today when he 'disclosed' an estimated fare structure for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), which is expected to be fully operational by January 2027.
Datuk Wong Tat Chee said that a one-way economy class ticket from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur is estimated at RM35, from Kuantan to Kota Baru at around RM45, and RM60 for passengers travelling from Kota Baru to Kuala Lumpur.
The Temerloh MCA division chief drew smiles from those present when he shared that he had used the popular artificial intelligence (AI) tool – ChatGPT – to simulate the fares through a series of hypothetical travel scenarios.
"The whole country is eagerly awaiting the launch of this historic mega-rail project, but the question of ticket pricing remains unanswered.
"I have watched several promotional videos highlighting the ECRL's sleek cabins and passenger convenience, but there was no mention of ticket prices. So, I used ChatGPT to estimate fares, taking into consideration the socioeconomic background and average income of East Coast residents.
"The simulation suggested ticket prices at around 10 sen per kilometre. ChatGPT also recommended discounted fares for persons with disabilities, students, and senior citizens," he said during the debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address by the Sultan of Pahang, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, at the state assembly sitting held at Wisma Sri Pahang today.
Speaking earnestly, Wong suggested that the Pahang government could consider the AI-generated fare estimates and raise the matter with the Transport Ministry and the concessionaire company.
The ECRL, a 665-kilometre railway connecting Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, and Selangor, has reached 81 per cent overall completion.
The government had previously assured that the prices for ECRL train tickets would be affordable and people-friendly.
Last year, Wong stunned the Pahang State Legislative Assembly when he proposed establishing the largest safari park in Southeast Asia in Temerloh, covering about 202 hectares.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
8 hours ago
- The Star
Philippine and Singapore expand cooperation in prioritised areas
PM Lawrence Wong (right) and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr (left) reviewing an honour guard at Malacanang Palace in Manila on June 4. -- Photo: Vietnam News/Asia News Network MANILA/SINGAPORE (Vietnam News/ANN): Singapore and the Philippines are set to deepen their collaboration in several areas, including renewable energy, sustainability, healthcare and civil service development. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr announced this at a joint press conference on June 4, the first day of an introductory visit to Manila by PM Wong, reported by The Straits Times. On renewable energy, the two countries agreed to deepen both bilateral and regional cooperation, and to accelerate efforts towards realising the Asean power grid, a plan to connect the electricity networks of the group's 10 member countries to enable cross-border power trading by 2045. Marcos said Singapore will continue to be a major partner in the Philippines' aspiration to diversify its energy sources, while Wong said Singapore companies are interested in renewable energy in the Philippines, including solar and wind projects. The two countries are also working to finalise a legally binding implementation agreement for cross-border carbon credit transfers that is aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. An implementation agreement will facilitate commercial participation in carbon credit projects, which can spur technology transfer and green investment and create good jobs, said Wong. The two leaders also said their respective health ministries are exploring ways to deepen health cooperation, such as in upskilling and the reintegration of returning Filipinos into the Philippine healthcare system. Last year, the Philippines was Singapore's fifth-largest trading partner in Asean, with bilateral trade reaching 19.1 billion SGD (US$14.8 billion). - Vietnam News/ANN
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Human coders are still better than AI, says this expert developer
Your team members may be tempted to rely on AI to help them write code for your company, either for cost or speed rationales or because they lack particular expertise. But you should be wary. — Pixabay In the complex 'will AI steal my job?' debate, software developers are among the workers most immediately at risk from powerful AI tools. It's certainly looking like the tech sector wants to reduce the number of humans working those jobs. Bold statements from the likes of Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Anthropic's Dario Amodei support this since both of them say AI is already able to take over some code-writing roles. But a new blog post from a prominent coding expert strongly disputes their arguments, and supports some AI critics' position that AI really can't code. Salvatore Sanfilippo, an Italian developer who created Redis (an online database which calls itself the 'world's fastest data platform' and is beloved by coders building real-time apps), published a blog post this week, provocatively titled 'Human coders are still better than LLMs.' His title refers to large language model systems that power AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. Sanfilippo said he's 'not anti-AI' and actually does 'use LLMs routinely,' and explained some specific interactions he'd had with Google's Gemini AI about writing code. These left him convinced that AIs are 'incredibly behind human intelligence,' so he wanted to make a point about it. The billions invested in the technology and the potential upending of the workforce mean it's 'impossible to have balanced conversations' on the matter, he wrote. Sanfilippo blogged that he was trying to 'fix a complicated bug' in Redis's systems. He made an attempt himself, and then asked Gemini, 'hey, what we can do here? Is there a super fast way' to implement his fix? Then, using detailed examples of the kind of software he was working with and the problem he was trying to fix, he blogged about the back-and-forth dialogue he had with Gemini as he tried to coax it toward an acceptable answer. After numerous interactions where the AI couldn't improve on his idea or really help much, he said he 'asked Gemini to do an analysis of (his last idea, and it was finally happy.' We can ignore the detailed code itself and just concentrate on Sanfilippo's final paragraph. 'All this to say: I just finished the analysis and stopped to write this blog post, I'm not sure if I'm going to use this system (but likely yes), but, the creativity of humans still have an edge, we are capable of really thinking out of the box, envisioning strange and imprecise solutions that can work better than others,' he wrote. 'This is something that is extremely hard for LLMs.' Gemini was useful, he admitted, to simply 'verify' his bug-fix ideas, but it couldn't outperform him and actually solve the problem itself. This stance from an expert coder goes up against some other pro-AI statements. Zuckerberg has said he plans to fire mid-level coders from Meta to save money, employing AI instead. In March, Amodei hit the headlines when he boldly predicted that all code would be written by AIs inside a year. Meanwhile, on the flip side, a February report from Microsoft warned that young coders coming out of college were already so reliant on AI to help them that they failed to understand the hard computer science behind the systems they were working on –something that may trip them up if they encountered a complex issue like Sanfilippo's bug. Commenters on a piece talking about Sanfilippo's blog post on coding news site Hacker News broadly agreed with his argument. One commenter likened the issue to a popular meme about social media: 'You know that saying that the best way to get an answer online is to post a wrong answer? That's what LLMs do for me.' Another writer noted that AIs were useful because even though they give pretty terrible coding advice, 'It still saves me time, because even 50 percent accuracy is still half that I don't have to write myself.' Lastly, another coder pointed out a very human benefit from using AI: 'I have ADHD and starting is the hardest part for me. With an LLM it gets me from 0 to 20% (or more) and I can nail it for the rest. It's way less stressful for me to start now.' Why should you care about this? At first glance, it looks like a very inside-baseball discussion about specific coding issues. You should care because your team members may be tempted to rely on AI to help them write code for your company, either for cost or speed rationales or because they lack particular expertise. But you should be wary. AIs are known to be unreliable, and Sanfilippo's argument, supported by other coders' comments, point out that AI really isn't capable of certain key coding tasks. For now, at least, coders' jobs may be safe… and if your team does use AI to code, they should double and triple check the AI's advice before implementing it in your IT system. – Inc./Tribune News Service
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Pan Merchant aims to raise RM67.6m from IPO for international expansion
KUALA LUMPUR: Solid-liquid filtration solutions provider Pan Merchant Bhd seeks to raise RM67.6 million from its initial public offering (IPO) for its listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia for international expansion. Of the total proceeds, the company will allocate RM62.7 million for capital expansion, of which RM28 million will be used to expand its manufacturing plants, including the acquisition of machinery, equipment and tools, as well as renovations to its manufacturing facilities. A further RM7 million will be allocated for product development and the remaining RM27.7 million for business expansion, general working capital and defraying listing expenses. The goal of the IPO is to grow the group's global market share to 2%-3% through further global expansion, particularly in Europe and America. Managing director Wong Voon Ten said the company aims to stay ahead in the industry by emphasising research and development, sharpening the performance of products, experimenting with new materials and technology, and staying agile in addressing the evolving demands of international clientele. 'In tandem with this, we are ramping up our manufacturing capabilities. From investing in the latest machinery and expanding automation to introducing new production lines, these improvements are designed to boost consistency, precision, and production scalability in line with our global growth ambitions,' he said at the launch of the IPO prospectus today. Wong said the US and European markets represent high potential opportunities for premium solid-liquid filtration systems. 'We are confident our offerings are well-aligned with the expectations and standards of these discerning markets.' The IPO involves a total of 250.2 million ordinary shares in Pan Merchant, which includes 232.2 million new shares and 18. million offer-for-sale shares. The total number of shares represents 27.3% of the enlarged share capital. The group aims to distribute at least 30% of its annual audited net profit after tax to reward its shareholders. Pan Merchant is scheduled to list on the ACE Market on June 26. Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd is the principal adviser, sponsor, sole placement agent and sole underwriter for the group's IPO.
