Re-envisioning Media, Technology and Society in the Age of AI

 Excerpt from the Dean's keynote speech, which I prepared for the International Conference on Media and Social Sciences 2025, entitled "Re-envisioning Media, Technology and Society in the Age of AI":

"We are now living in an interesting yet challenging timeline in history. Barely four to five years ago the whole world was struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic and little did we know then that a few years later, AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, would not only transform the world but dominate our work and daily life in ways that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. We are now at a critical juncture: what we do today, our decisions and policies, will shape our country and the next generation. Experts and policymakers are still grappling with the question of how should we deal with such technology and its impact. Do we embrace it fully? What guardrails do we need to protect against abuse or breaches of privacy? Are there ethical concerns with regards to its use and features? 

Malaysia has been fortunate in that we have always chosen to embrace and adapt, rather than reject, new technologies. When internet became commercialised in the 1990s and terms like information technology and multimedia became popular buzzwords, we decided to embrace them fully. We formalised it in a policy called the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), and we invited the Silicon Valley tech-entrepreneurs to Malaysia to discuss and chart the way forward. As a result, a flagship smart city was conceived, and within it, a dedicated university was established to serve as the nucleus of the ambitious MSC project. We have come a long since then. We are much more connected than ever before; from slow dial-up connections to high-speed internet broadband, from cell phones to smartphones, from diskettes and pen drives to cloud computing, from encyclopaedias to Wikipedia, and now ChatGPT, from physical television to YouTube and streaming platforms like Netflix, from live broadcasting to live-streaming on TikTok, and so much more technological progress, often leaving many of us either unfazed or unaware of its true significance.

Whether directly or indirectly, this is the result of the rapid advancement of technology in the era of globalisation and a borderless world. To give some good examples, it took television 13 years to reach 50 million viewers in the 1950s, but the Internet only needed 4 years to reach 50 million users. Facebook, launched in 2004, took about 3.5 years to achieve 50 million users, while TikTok reached the same milestone in just around 8 months. Most recently, ChatGPT broke all records by gaining 1 million users within 5 days of its release in November 2022, and an estimated 100 million monthly active users, all within 2 months – making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. How do we make sense of this? It is clear that nothing is impossible in the realm of technology today. A decade ago, only journalists and media professionals could broadcast themselves or events live. Today anyone can livestream themselves 24 hours a day on social media. Things are only going to get faster and bigger. 

Prominent AI thinker, Ray Kurzweil, in his latest book, “The Singularity is Nearer” (2025), has doubled down on his prediction that that within 4 years, by 2029, AI will reach human-level intelligence, and that the singularity, meaning the point at which AI will surpass the capabilities of the human mind, will happen in 2045. It remains a bold projection, and he has his fair share or critics too, but five years ago, nobody could have imagined the capabilities of AI tools like ChatGPT today. For example, just two years ago, it was relatively easy to distinguish an AI-generated image from a real one. Today it is increasingly difficult to tell them apart. Students and professors are now using AI to generate ideas, draft academic papers, and theses. On the political front, one of the most striking example was in Nepal where, following massive youth-led street protests, ChatGPT was consulted and to select their country’s next Prime Minister. 

However, having said all that, it is also worth noting that not all new technological inventions are perfect and without drawbacks. As history has shown us, every new media technology has always brought with it issues and challenges. When television became popular and accessible in the 1950s and 1960s there were rising concerns about violence on screen, especially its impact on children. Then came the internet and the world wide web in the 1990s, bringing a new set of issues and challenges. Fake chain letters, for example, have existed for decades, but with email, internet, and instant messaging applications, they adapted and spread a lot quicker. Fast forward to 21st century, we now face issues such as fake news, misinformation, privacy breaches, cyber bullying, identity theft among others. Digital awareness and social media literacy have never been more important, especially for teenagers and the younger generation. 

This brings us to the central question of AI’s role and its impact on communication and media. Will it make us too dependent on technology? Or will it help us transform society for the better?