Anwar: ILMU 1.0 will ensure AI benefits 'every Malaysian in every corner'
Speaking at the launch of Malaysia's upgraded ILMU large language model (LLM) today, Anwar said the nation stood at "a defining crossroads" in harnessing technology to shape its economic future, identity, public trust, and moral compass.
"Our vision is not only to harness AI just to catch up with the rest of the world, but to lead in some areas, to protect our values, to give meaning to the principle of equity and justice," he said.
He cautioned that failure to address the widening knowledge gap in new disciplines could deepen divisions between the skilled and the unskilled.
"Would we rather remain completely incapable of mounting an effective challenge to uplift the standards?
"The divide will become real and the challenges for the country would be serious," he said.
Malaysia's AI Nation framework, he added, would ensure AI benefits "every Malaysian in every corner of the country" through five pillars: forward-looking policies, a digitally skilled workforce, secure and reliable infrastructure, advancement of digital trust, and strategic investments via public-private partnerships and global collaboration.
"We have made a very bold decision, and I'm proud to say that we are ahead… with such confidence in terms of digitalisation and AI.
"We want to share this and work together with our neighbours in Southeast Asia," he said.
Alluding to a meeting with religious scholars in Kelantan two days earlier, Anwar stressed the importance of keeping pace with technological change while continuing to uphold faith and moral values.
"I commend them initially for becoming the best in the battle against colonialism in all its forms… That phase has passed.
"So I told these leaders, scholars, this generation, and I believe the future generation, we remain eternally grateful to you, where you stood firm to defend the faith and moral values, and in rejecting the imposition by a foreign alien system.
"But then, here's the catch — what about now?
"I'm not here to change or dictate the curriculum. But I appeal to you: while retaining faith and moral values based on Islamic tradition, we are now confronting a different power challenge.
"If you do not address this, it will cause a divide between those who have high knowledge and those who remain completely ignorant of the new disciplines," he said.
The launch, part of the Asean AI Malaysia Summit 2025 opening ceremony, marked the start of an inaugural gathering to chart the direction of AI in Malaysia, particularly in governance.
The two-day summit at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (Mitec) is organised by the Digital Ministry and attended by Minister Gobind Singh Deo, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Bakar, Asean secretary-general Dr Kao Kim Hourn, and Asean delegates, alongside global experts and industry players.
Malaysia's sovereign AI platform, ILMU — short for Intelek Luhur Malaysia Untukmu (Excellent Malaysian Intelligence for You) — is a homegrown LLM developed by YTL AI Labs. Built to understand and process text, voice, and images, it is designed with strong emphasis on local context, ethics, and safety.
The first iteration, ILMU 0.1, was unveiled in December 2024 and outperformed leading global LLMs in Malay-language benchmarks, even passing Malaysia's PT3 and SPM national exams with top grades.
Today's launch of ILMU 1.0 marks a major upgrade, supported by Malaysia's first national AI supercomputer housed at YTL Power's green data centre in Johor. Powered by NVIDIA's GB200 "Grace Blackwell" chips via the DGX Cloud platform, the infrastructure delivers the computing capacity needed for advanced AI training and deployment.
The ILMU project is part of Malaysia's broader push to build sovereign AI capabilities that are globally competitive while serving national priorities.
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