Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says Malaysia’s digital transformation has taken a major leap today with the launch of Ilmu 1.0, the country’s first multimodal AI model.
Ilmu – short for Intelek Luhur Malaysia Untukmu – can process and generate text, voice and images, and is tailored to Malay, English and local dialects.
Anwar said Ilmu 1.0, which was developed by YTL AI Labs in partnership with Universiti Malaya, aligned with Putrajaya‘s ambition to become an AI-driven economy.
“Our vision is not just to harness AI to catch up with the rest of the world, but to lead in some areas, protect our values, and give meaning to the principles of equity and justice,” said Anwar at the Asean AI Summit here.
He also stressed the need to bridge the digital divide, especially among rural and marginalised communities.
A multimodal AI model is an artificial intelligence system designed to understand and process information from multiple types of data – such as text, images, audio, and video – simultaneously.
This approach allows multimodal AI models to perform complex tasks more effectively, such as generating image captions, answering questions about a video, or engaging in more natural human-computer interactions.
YTL said Ilmu 1.0 performs on par with top global models like GPT-4o and Llama 3.1, and leads in Malay language understanding and real-world task solving.
It is hosted on YTL’s local AI cloud, ensuring data residency and enterprise-grade security.
YTL Power managing director Yeoh Seok Hong said the model reflected Malaysia’s cultural and intellectual heritage, calling it a “national capability” for inclusive innovation.
Digital minister Gobind Singh Deo described Ilmu as a “groundbreaking” initiative that supports Malaysia’s push for ethical, locally relevant AI development.
YTL AI Labs also launched the Ilmu AI Accelerator Programme with the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, offering RM5 million for startups and developers to build AI tools using Ilmu.
Ilmu 1.0 is now available via YTL’s cloud platform, with consumer access through ILMUchat rolling out on Malaysia Day on Sept 16.
YTL has committed over RM20 billion to build the national AI ecosystem, including green data centres and sovereign models. Early partners include Astro, Media Prima, Ryt Bank, Carsome and Swipey.
The two-day Asean AI Summit, hosted by the digital ministry, aims to foster regional collaboration and position Malaysia as a key AI hub in Southeast Asia.
