Global civilisation initiative: The Asean multicultural model
While economic interdependence and technological advancements are reshaping societies, GCI seeks to create global harmony based on cultural diversity, shared human values, and sustainable progress.
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The Star
20-07-2025
- The Star
ChatGPT helps prepare this mayor's talking points. Now he wants a thousand city workers using AI
Before the mayor of San Jose, California, arrives at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new business, his aides ask ChatGPT to help draft some talking points. "Elected officials do a tremendous amount of public speaking,' said Mayor Matt Mahan, whose recent itinerary has taken him from new restaurant and semiconductor startup openings to a festival of lowriding car culture. Other politicians might be skittish admitting a chatbot co-wrote their speech or that it helped draft a US$5.6bil (RM23.7bil) budget for the new fiscal year, but Mahan is trying to lead by example, pushing a growing number of the nearly 7,000 government workers running Silicon Valley's biggest city to embrace artificial intelligence technology. Mahan said adopting AI tools will eliminate drudge work and help the city better serve its roughly 1 million residents. He's hardly the only public or private sector executive directing an AI-or-bust strategy, though in some cases, workers have found that the costly technology can add hassles or mistakes. "The idea is to try things, be really transparent, look for problems, flag them, share them across different government agencies, and then work with vendors and internal teams to problem solve,' Mahan said in an interview. "It's always bumpy with new technologies.' By next year, the city intends to have 1,000, or about 15%, of its workers trained to use AI tools for a variety of tasks, including pothole complaint response, bus routing and using vehicle-tracking surveillance cameras to solve crimes. One of San Jose's early adopters was Andrea Arjona Amador, who leads electric mobility programs at the city's transportation department. She has already used ChatGPT to secure a US$12mil (RM50.9mil) grant for electric vehicle chargers. Arjona Amador set up a customised "AI agent' to review the correspondence she was receiving about various grant proposals and asked it to help organise the incoming information, including due dates. Then, she had it help draft the 20-page document. So far, San Jose has spent more than US$35,000 (RM148,592) to purchase 89 ChatGPT licenses – at US$400 (RM1,698) per account – for city workers to use. "The way it used to work, before I started using this, we spent a lot of evenings and weekends trying to get grants to the finish line,' she said. The Trump administration later rescinded the funding, so she pitched a similar proposal to a regional funder not tied to the federal government. Arjona Amador, who learned Spanish and French before she learned English, also created another customized chatbot to edit the tone and language of her professional writings. With close relationships to some of the tech industry's biggest players, including San Francisco-based OpenAI and Mountain View-based Google, the mayors of the Bay Area's biggest cities are helping to promote the type of AI adoption that the tech industry is striving for, while also promising guidelines and standards to avoid the technology's harms. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan Monday to give nearly 30,000 city workers, including nurses and social workers, access to Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, which is based on the same technology that powers ChatGPT. San Francisco's plan says it comes with "robust privacy and bias safeguards, and clear guidelines to ensure technology enhances - not replaces - human judgment.' San Jose has similar guidelines and hasn't yet reported any major mishaps with its pilot projects. Such problems have attracted attention elsewhere because of the technology's propensity to spew false information, known as hallucinations. ChatGPT's digital fingerprints were found on an error-filled document published in May by US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" commission. In Fresno, California, a school official was forced to resign after saying she was too trusting of an AI chatbot that fabricated information in a document. While some government agencies have been secretive about when they turn to chatbots for help, Mahan is open about his ChatGPT-written background memos that he turns to when making speeches. "Historically, that would have taken hours of phone calls and reading, and you just never would have been able to get those insights," he said. "You can knock out these tasks at a similar or better level of quality in a lot less time.' He added, however, that "you still need a human being in the loop. You can't just kind of press a couple of buttons and trust the output. You still have to do some independent verification. You have to have logic and common sense and ask questions.' Earlier this year, when OpenAI introduced a new pilot product called Operator, it promised a new kind of tool that went beyond a chatbot's capabilities. Instead of just analyzing documents and producing passages of text, it could also access a computer system and schedule calendars or perform tasks on a person's behalf. Developing and selling such "AI agents" is now a key focus for the tech industry. More than an hour's drive east of Silicon Valley, where the Bay Area merges into Central Valley farm country, Jamil Niazi, director of information technology at the city of Stockton, had big visions for what he could do with such an agent. Perhaps the parks and recreation department could let an AI agent help residents book a public park or swimming pool for a birthday party. Or residents could find out how crowded the pool was before packing their swim clothes. Six months later, however, after completing a proof-of-concept phase, the city didn't buy a full license for the technology due to the cost. The market research group Gartner recently predicted that over 40% of "agentic AI' projects will be cancelled before the end of 2027, "due to escalating costs, unclear business value or inadequate risk controls.' San Jose's mayor remains bullish about the potential for these AI tools to help workers "in the bowels of bureaucracy' to rapidly speed up their digital paperwork. "There's just an amazing amount of bureaucracy that large organisations have to have,' Mahan said. "Whether it's finance, accounting, HR or grant writing, those are the kinds of roles where we think our employees can be 20 (to) 50% more productive – quickly.' – AP ——— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of AP's text archives.
Malaysian Reserve
15-07-2025
- Malaysian Reserve
Bursa opens slightly higher on upbeat Wall Street
BURSA MALAYSIA opened slightly higher on Tuesday, tracking gains from upbeat overnight Wall Street amid the United States (US) trade policy uncertainties. At 9.11 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) inched up 0.09 of a point to 1,537.60 from Monday's close of 1,537.51. The benchmark index had opened 1.45 points lower at 1,536.06. Market breadth was positive, with gainers outnumbering decliners 198 to 120, while 256 counters were unchanged, 1,855 untraded, and eight suspended. Turnover stood at 124.59 million shares worth RM70.13 million. Malacca Securities Sdn Bhd said the overnight session saw buying interest in both Wall Street and US Treasuries, despite the recent announcement of blanket tariffs. Although the brokerage said there has been little progress towards de-escalating the trade wars, and it anticipates that sentiment may remain positive amid a recovery in the US dollar index. 'Despite the ongoing trade war with uncertain US trade policies, we believe it may drive tighter inspection protocols and regulatory compliance, leading to greater demand for security screening machines,' it said in a note today. Among the heavyweights, Maybank rose one sen to RM9.73, Public Bank and CIMB fell two sen each to RM4.32 and RM6.67, respectively, Tenaga Nasional added four sen to RM13.94, while IHH Healthcare was flat at RM6.59. In active trade, NexG, Eldrige Energy and Hartanah Kenyalang were all half a sen lower at 47.5 sen, 64 sen and 16 sen, respectively. Both TWL and JAKS Resources remained unchanged at 2.5 sen and 10 sen, respectively. On the broader index board, the FBM Emas Index rose 11.13 points to 11,569.59, the FBMT 100 Index gained 9.74 points to 11,330.78, and the FBM Emas Shariah Index climbed 19.77 points to 11,580.37. The FBM 70 Index advanced 54.07 points to 16,841.27, while the FBM ACE Index inched up 9.47 points to 4,580.99. By sector, the Financial Services Index declined 29.84 points to 17,634.03, the Energy Index edged down 1.25 points to 746.13, while the Plantation Index improved 3.92 points to 7,438.02, and the Industrial Products and Services Index ticked up 0.61 of a point to 154.48. — BERNAMA
New Straits Times
13-07-2025
- New Straits Times
REITs poised for earnings boost from acquisitions and renovations
KUALA LUMPUR: Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are poised to post stronger earnings on the back of ongoing acquisitions and asset enhancements, according to RHB Investment Bank Bhd (RHB Research). The firm said AME REIT is on track to complete RM148 million worth of acquisitions, while Axis REIT is expected to deliver healthy year-on-year earnings growth following RM644 million in acquisitions completed in the second half of 2024. IGB REIT's RM2.7 billion acquisition of Mid Valley Southkey was highlighted as a key move to tap into growth opportunities in the Iskandar Malaysia market. Meanwhile, Pavilion REIT is anticipated to finalise the acquisition of Pavilion Hotel KL and Banyan Tree KL for RM480 million. RHB Research said this would provide positive operating synergies with its flagship mall. Sentral REIT is also expected to complete its RM70 million acquisition of Arcoris Plaza, part of its strategy to diversify its asset base. The firm said a potential disposal of the vacant Wisma Sentral Inai could help reduce borrowing costs. Sunway REIT recently completed Phase 2 of its refurbishment of Sunway Carnival Mall, which is expected to support a strong rebound in average rental rates. Despite downside risks from the expanded Sales and Service Tax (SST) and new electricity tariffs, the research house said REITs are well positioned to weather the impact due to growth initiatives and tenant relationship strategies. "While there is no clear guidance yet on the impact from the new cost pressures, we think REITs may delay the imposition of higher rental reversions for certain tenants to maintain positive relationships while they adjust to the new cost base, which would be more beneficial in the long run. "Likewise, REITs in the past have delayed raising the service charge to tenants due to a higher electricity tariff," it said in a research note. RHB Research's top pick is Pavilion REIT, citing attractive dividend yields compared to its closest peers, backed by high occupancy rates that should support solid earnings growth in the long term. Overall, the firm has maintained an "Overweight" call, adding that REITs remain a reliable shelter for investors seeking defensive assets, supported by robust domestic spending, easing bond yields, and inorganic growth strategies across multiple REITs. "We think the pros outweigh the cons, most notably from the expansion of SST, which could potentially provide a downside risk to rental reversions, of which the REITs with strong asset quality should be relatively shielded from," it added.
