Usually, laws are enacted to fill in a ‘lacuna’ or gaps that require legislation. For example, we enacted the anti-stalking law because the behaviour needed to be criminalised. In the case of AI, with its rapid advancements several issues have cropped up which require attention.
First and foremost – intellectual property. The intense discussion about Palworld has thrown up the discourse about AI generated elements.
It is not copyright infringement if there’s no ‘copying’ per se. But what if the AI comes up with something substantially similar to an IP? Do we need to relook at our IP laws in view of AI?
Secondly – in this area of fake news and disinformation, it will not be long before someone uses AI to generate a fake video or image against political opponents, or to create disunity amongst the races. Is the Penal Code/CMA robust enough to deal with such instances?
Are our enforcement agencies, especially the police and MCMC equipped to identify AI generated content that break the law? Do we have enough experts that can testify if the matter goes to Court? Do we need to train more?
Thirdly – how do we protect content creators and those who work as designers, artists etc from AI replacing them? This is not easy since throughout history this has occured; but surely there are ways, means to still ensure that there is space for designers, creators, artists etc
In this regard, legislation might not be the answer. But governments can do their part in resisting the use of AI generated images / videos and continue to commission creators/artists/designers. Of course some would argue AI is cheaper. So what is our priority?
These are just some of the issues that we need to start talking about. Again, it does not mean that legislation is immediately the answer, but we must start talking about it now to prepare for the future (which is closer than we think).
I call upon the government to set up a task force made out of several ministries, agencies (KPDN, KDN, KD, KK etc) to look into these issues, along with experts. I must stress, this is not to stifle the development of AI. It is to future proof ourselves for challenges ahead.
Syahredzan Johan
