{"id":187389,"date":"2026-04-30T05:54:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=187389"},"modified":"2026-04-30T05:55:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:55:01","slug":"empowering-malay-language-through-artificial-intelligence-ai-eras-a-colloquium-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=187389","title":{"rendered":"Empowering Malay Language Through Artificial Intelligence (AI) Eras: A Colloquium Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By, Afiq Isra<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGOH, 8 April 2026: Department of Malay Language (DoML) organised a one-day colloquium, Kolokium ketika Kecerdasan Buatan (AI) Berbicara, Di Manakah Bahasa Melayu?<\/em> at Lecturer Hall, B3, Kulliyyah of Sustainable Tourism and Contemporary Languages (KSTCL) on 8th of April 2026. The event was inaugurated by Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar, Rector of IIUM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the opening speech, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azrul Azlen Abd. Hamid, Dean of KSTCL, expressed his concern about how society uses AI for everything, especially among students. He hoped that the colloquium could be a place of discussion or fikrah<\/em> of ideas on how the Malay language faces the reality of continuing as a language of knowledge, history, civilisation, and technology with the Tawhidic Epistemological framework in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event continued with a forum titled Bahasa Melayu dalam Era Kecerdasan Buatan – Cabaran dan Peluang<\/em>. The forum was led by Dr. Nurul Jamilah Rosly from DoML as moderator with Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Azreen Azman, lecturer from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), is one of the panelists. Unfortunately, Dr. Hazami Jahari, Head Director of Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), who was supposed to be one of the panelists, did not attend the event due to family matters. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The wideview of colloquium.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Dr. Azreen started the forum with the status of the Malay language in the current AI situation on technical aspects. He stated that although some universities in Malaysia, viz Universiti Malaya (UM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), are leading on AI model development in the Malay language, they still face a lot of challenges in AI model development, which are a lack of data sources, financial and consumerism on AI products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, Prof. Emeritus Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar spoke on the status of knowledge civilization which said that technology and language are supposedly intangible to each other. However, we acknowledge that we still lack researchers, hence lead to the challenges. He also urged that AI needs to be considered as a field of knowledge. Although Malaysia has not developed enough about it, with a lot of local researchers in the field, it will raise the Malay position. This matter was also agreed by Dr. Azreen since there are not many AI terms translated into Malay currently, based on his observation in his studies and lectures.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forum continues with the question is it possible for universities to develop their own AI model and products. Dr Azreen commented that most of the AI products are made by giant industries such as Microsoft and Google. The AI products themselves need proximity around 200 millions USD, which is not possible for universities. However, the university may either do collaborations with the AI industries or use the existing one like RAG to encounter the impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The forum got more interesting with the implication on Malay language in future. Prof Datuk Dr. Osman Bakar opined that Malay language faced big problems in various fields of knowledge. Despite the standardization issues between Malaysian and Indonesian terms, it is also about the usage of Malay language in lectures and research which mainly uses English as intermediate language. He urged The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to intervene in the issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the matter of AI fields, Prof Datuk Dr Osman Bakar suggested that the universities plan AI philosophy courses for the students. One of the questions that is relevant in philosophy is whether humans can really make an artificial intelligence that competes with humans. Contrariwise, as Muslims believe that humans are in the perfect form of creation among others. From other perspectives, humans not only have five outer senses but also the other five inner senses. AIs want to replicate human natural abilities, but humans know their limitations. This is also related to Dr Azreen\u2019s quotes in the forum, which is, \u201cAI may speak in the Malay language currently, but it doesn\u2019t mean it can reckon like a true Malay.\u201d Although these days people do worry about works replaced by AI, Prof Datuk Dr Osman Bakar criticized that every profession that is replaced by technology always has its retrenchment benefits. Because of the limitations of AI, we do need the one who manages the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end of the forum, both panelists agreed Malay language has its own benefits. They agreed that the government and researchers should contribute in order to enhance the Malay language in the AI era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The colloquium continued with the speech \u201cMalay Language and AI Waves: Empowerment and Sustainability Initiatives\u201d by Prof Dr Vijayaletchumy Subramaniam, professor of the Department of Malay Language, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, UPM. In the evening, there were two workshops provided, led by Madam Nur Aziera Mohd Ramli (lecturer of CELPAD, IIUM) in the first session and Dr Mohd Shahril Nizam Shaharom (lecturer of Faculty of Education, UM) in the second session.<\/p>\n\n\n

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KSTCL Guide Book<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The colloquium also had the KSTCL Guide Book launching ceremony. The book contains the goals, structure and guidelines of kulliyyah which is the reference for staff and students of the Pagoh Campus.***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By, Afiq Isra PAGOH, 8 April 2026: Department of Malay Language (DoML) organised a one-day colloquium, Kolokium ketika Kecerdasan Buatan (AI) Berbicara, Di Manakah Bahasa… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":187393,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4,3],"tags":[],"nelio_content":{"isAutoShareEnabled":true,"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"followers":[405],"suggestedReferences":[],"efiUrl":"","efiAlt":"","highlights":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0195-1-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187389"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187433,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187389\/revisions\/187433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}