Prime Minister warns that artificial intelligence is concentrating power in the hands of a few states and corporations, widening the digital divide and raising profound moral questions about humanity’s future.
By TENGKU NOOR SHAMSIAH TENGKU ABDULLAH
TOKYO, June 9 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim used a public lecture at the University of Tokyo to deliver one of his strongest critiques yet of the artificial intelligence age, warning that AI is concentrating power in the hands of a small number of states and corporations while widening global inequalities.
Stripped of the slides, presentations and what he described as the “public-relations razzmatazz” surrounding artificial intelligence, the question of what it means to become an AI nation is fundamentally a moral one before it is a technological one, Anwar said.
“We must help shape a digital civilisation worthy of humankind,” he told a packed hall of students and academics, framing a challenge that extends far beyond Malaysia and Japan.
The lecture, titled Humanity in a Human-Machine Civilisation, was among the most philosophically ambitious speeches Anwar has delivered abroad. Drawing on Japanese poetry and moral philosophy alongside the works of Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot, he argued that a civilisation built around intelligent machines should be judged not by what those machines can do, but by whether human beings remain capable of care, responsibility and moral judgement in their presence.
Power and who holds it
At the heart of Anwar’s address was a warning about the concentration of power in the digital age.
The data, chips, energy, cloud infrastructure, talent and capital that drive AI are not distributed evenly, he said, arguing that the global digital divide is widening rather than narrowing. A small number of countries and corporations now wield outsized influence over the models, platforms and standards that much of the world relies upon.
Some technology companies, he noted, have begun to frame their work in civilisational terms while developing systems for armed forces and intelligence agencies. Increasingly, they contend that advanced software and artificial intelligence need to be weaponised in pursuit of geopolitical interests.
That development, Anwar cautioned, should give the world pause.
“A platform offered as a tool may begin to carry the deeper logic of dominion: who sees, who decides, who sets the terms, and who must live within them,” he said.
Malaysia does not seek isolation, he stressed, recognising that no country can build the future alone. Yet he warned against the emergence of a fractured digital order.
“We do not want an AI order in which every platform becomes a camp, every standard becomes a flag, and every dependency becomes a silent act of alignment.”
In this new era, he added, sovereignty is no longer merely about ownership.
“It is about the capacity to engage the world without being absorbed by it.”
The moral test of technology
If the political message was clear, the moral challenge was even sharper.
Against the backdrop of technological triumphalism, Anwar pointed to what he described as some of the world’s continuing failures — citing the conflict in Gaza, the killing of schoolgirls in Iran, the bombardment of Lebanon and the energy crisis resulting from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
To a significant extent, he argued, these tragedies have unfolded in an era shaped by unprecedented digital capability.
“The bitter irony is that these atrocities are effectively enabled by the advent of the digital revolution,” he said, particularly through advances in artificial intelligence.
He then posed a direct question to the audience:
“Can we in good conscience make the claim that such advancements are worthy of humankind?”
Anwar emphasised that he was not opposed to technological progress.
“We are no Luddites and we are all for embracing technological advancement,” he said.
Malaysia is already deeply embedded in the global semiconductor supply chain and has set itself the goal of becoming an AI Nation by 2030. His concern, he stressed, is not with progress itself but with the values that guide it.
The space between persons
Drawing on the ideas of Japanese philosopher Watsuji Tetsuro and the concept of ningen — the individual and the relationships that bind people together — Anwar argued that machines are increasingly entering deeply human spaces while lacking the experiences that make people human.
A machine, he said, may generate words of comfort without ever knowing grief, or compose an apology without having wronged anyone.
Yet it will never watch a parent grow old, endure heartbreak or experience the silence that follows loss.
Borrowing from Shakespeare’s King Lear, he observed that machines may learn what ought to be said, but can never truly “speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.”
On the future of work, Anwar drew a distinction between earlier waves of automation and the current AI revolution.
Where previous technological shifts largely automated physical labour, today’s systems increasingly undertake cognitive and decision-making functions.
This risks, he said, reducing human beings from creators to curators, and from producers to supervisors.
Efficiency pursued without limits, he warned, may ultimately come at the expense of human dignity and purpose.
Quoting Nobel Prize-winning Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata, he cautioned that the relentless pursuit of material advancement risks plunging humanity into “shock, trauma, psychological, and spiritual isolation.”
Humanity must remain in control
The Prime Minister concluded by arguing that the future of artificial intelligence has not yet been written.
Its direction will ultimately be shaped by human laws, institutions, universities, markets and moral courage.
The challenge, he said, is to ensure that societies retain meaningful control before technological development reaches a point where it becomes difficult to comprehend, regulate or govern.
The objective must be to build systems that “serve human beings to enrich our humanity, not debase it.”
Anwar linked that vision to Malaysia’s Madani framework, which emphasises human-centred development and ethical progress.
The future, he argued, will belong to societies capable of combining technological excellence with a deep understanding of human values and social responsibility.
More than 2,000 Malaysian government-sponsored students are currently pursuing their studies in Japan.
Why Tokyo — and why now
The lecture followed a courtesy call on University of Tokyo President Professor Teruo Fujii and forms part of Anwar’s official visit to Japan from June 8 to 10 at the invitation of the Japanese government.
It is his first official visit to Japan since becoming Prime Minister in November 2022, following working visits in 2023 and 2024.
He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Utama Mohamad Hasan, Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani, and Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong.
A key component of the visit is a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, where both leaders are expected to review cooperation under the Malaysia-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which was elevated in December 2023.
The visit is expected to produce four memoranda of cooperation and two letters of intent, alongside a joint statement under the partnership framework.
The economic relationship underscores the significance of the visit. Japan has remained Malaysia’s fifth-largest trading partner since 2024, with bilateral trade reaching RM142.96 billion (US$33.39 billion) in 2025.
As of December 2025, Japanese companies had implemented 2,872 manufacturing projects in Malaysia worth RM107.9 billion, supporting more than 347,000 jobs.
Yet that relationship also highlights the tension running through Anwar’s speech.
Malaysia’s ambition to become an AI Nation by 2030 relies heavily on the very chips, capital, infrastructure and technological partnerships that he warned are increasingly concentrated among a powerful few.
His message in Tokyo was therefore not a rejection of technological progress, but a call to shape it on human terms — to participate in the AI revolution without surrendering autonomy, and to ensure that conscience, responsibility, integrity and care remain at the centre of a rapidly changing world.
- TNS NEWS