The government intends to include provisions in its planned Artificial Intelligence (AI) Governance Bill to ensure software aimed at children includes safety guardrails.

It’s not a novel idea, and Malaysia won't be the first country to introduce such legislation. However, the efficacy of such laws has yet to be proven, raising questions as to whether this will work in Malaysia in the near future.

Few details of Putrajaya's plan are known so far. However, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said in a written reply dated yesterday that it would require chatbot developers to adopt safety-by-design, with mandatory impact risk assessments and content filters to protect young minds.

The government also plans a targeted bot disclosure mechanism to inform users that they are interacting with a machine.