Gobind Says AI Governance Bill Expected in Dewan Rakyat Early Next Year

Malaysia expects to table an Artificial Intelligence Governance Bill in the Dewan Rakyat early next year, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo told Parliament, the New Straits Times reported. The bill would take a risk-based approach, tying obligations to the potential harm of a system rather than to industry labels alone, and would sit across sectors as a complement to existing laws.

Responding to questions about global calls to slow AI development, Gobind said the government is not choosing a pause. Instead, rapidly advancing and increasingly autonomous systems that can affect people or critical infrastructure will need stronger safety mechanisms, testing, monitoring, human oversight and response plans before wider deployment.

The Digital Ministry and the Malaysia AI Safety Institute are examining structured ways to regulate how organisations deploy models, including safety benchmarks, risk assessments and incident reporting that can trigger corrective action. Gobind linked the bill to the National AI Action Plan 2026–2030, which treats trust and safety as prerequisites for adoption rather than afterthoughts.

What it means in practice

A cross-sector statute would give enforcers a single reference point when chatbots, scoring tools or agents cause harm, instead of stretching consumer or cyber laws case by case. It also continues a consultation track that already includes work on an AI and personal data protection framework and safety-by-design expectations for child-facing chatbots. Businesses should expect documentation duties to rise before criminal penalties do.

Foreign model providers selling into Malaysia will need local risk files and clearer incident channels; SMEs will need templates so compliance does not become a barrier to entry. The Safety Institute’s benchmarks will matter as much as the statutory text.

What to watch: the draft bill’s definition of high-risk systems, whether incident reporting is mandatory, and how early 2027 the Dewan Rakyat actually schedules first reading.