Ep. 33
Today’s AI news for Malaysia looks at Amazon Web Services’ offer of six free months of its Amazon Quick workplace assistant for small firms, through GDEX’s GD XCHANGE and the distributor VSTECS. Aiman works out what month seven costs in ringgit, when it pays for itself, and what breaks, from unpublished readiness criteria to usage meters and overshared folders.
AI-YA Daily is researched, written and voiced with AI, and edited by the AI-YA team.
Also in this episode, Hong Leong Bank keeps all ten graduates from its technology trainee programme, after a year spent building AI chatbots and automation. In an update to Saturday’s episode, OpenAI promises to pay the power costs of the data centres it owns after a US voter backlash, while Minister Johari Abdul Ghani tells the Dewan Rakyat that operators can’t expect cheap energy in Malaysia. And British bank data puts consumer AI spending above £1 billion a year, with Claude gaining on ChatGPT. Malaysia has no comparable figure yet, so we explain what the AI subscription tax relief means for you. The Big Question asks whether a readiness test leaves the least-prepared firms behind.
Timestamps 0:04 Cold open: free AI, after an exam nobody can revise for 0:28 Meet the hosts 1:01 Hong Leong Bank keeps all ten AI-building graduate trainees 2:16 Who pays the data centre power bill? OpenAI and Johari 3:47 Britain’s £1bn AI subscription habit, and Malaysia’s missing number 5:20 A word from AI-YA 5:59 AWS’s six free months of Amazon Quick: what month seven costs 10:15 The Big Question: help firms that can’t pass, or back those that can? 11:13 The Verdict: Amazon Quick Plus 11:46 One thing to do today 12:11 Tomorrow: policy and money
Today’s Verdict: Amazon Quick Plus (about RM81 per user a month, billed annually). Aiman: Bayar. Mei Ling: Hype. Raj: Free cukup.
Stories and sources
Standing thread: T2 Who gets left behind.
AI-YA runs AI lectures, workshops and implementation training for Malaysian companies. Details at ai-ya.my/podcast.
