Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim to get AI twin: report

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is preparing to launch an artificial intelligence avatar modeled on himself, in a move that could turn a national digital government agenda into one of the most direct experiments yet in leader-branded AI.

The avatar, called PMX AI, has been developed by Malaysian digital infrastructure company Zetrix AI Bhd, Bloomberg reported. PMX refers to Anwar’s position as Malaysia’s 10th prime minister.

The system is expected to make its debut within days, the report said, citing the prime minister’s office.

PMX AI has been trained on Anwar’s speeches, writings and the policy record of his government, according to Bloomberg. It is designed to speak in English and Malay, understand regional dialects and colloquial expressions, and assist citizens with public services such as license renewals, payment links, job training and education guidance.

The project was initiated by Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Anwar’s political party, the report said, giving the tool a political edge beyond its public-service function, especially as Malaysia moves toward a general election that must be held by early 2028.

The avatar is described as an agentic AI system, meaning it can handle multi-step tasks with a degree of autonomy. In practice, that could allow a user to ask for help with a government transaction, receive guidance, move to payment and get confirmation without shifting between multiple portals or service counters.

The ambition fits Anwar’s wider attempt to present Malaysia as a regional AI hub and a producer of home-grown digital capability, not just a market for imported technology.

On 29 June, Anwar launched Malaysia Digital 2030, or MD2030, a national plan to accelerate AI adoption across government, industry and society.

The plan sets targets for the digital economy to contribute 30% of GDP by 2030, place Malaysia in the top 25 of the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking and move the country into the top 20 of the UN e-Government Development Index.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Digital has also said the national AI push aims to create 500,000 high-value digital jobs, generate RM4.5 billion in public-sector savings from government digitalization and deliver 95% of government services fully online end to end.

That makes PMX AI more than a novelty if it is implemented as described.

It also raises clear governance questions.

A synthetic version of a sitting prime minister would need strict boundaries around what it can say, what data it can collect and when a human official must intervene.

The distinction between public administration, party communication and personal political branding could become difficult to maintain if citizens experience the tool as Anwar himself speaking through a screen.

AI systems can produce incorrect answers, reflect gaps in the material used to train them, or mislead users if their status is not clearly disclosed. A leader’s likeness adds another layer of risk as citizens may place greater trust in responses that appear to come directly from the head of government.

Malaysia is already working on a formal AI governance framework. Anwar said on 1 July that the government was completing an AI Governance Bill, which would complement the Cybersecurity Act and data protection regulations.

MyDIGITAL has also sought consultancy support for the development of the Bill, saying the proposed legislation should be aligned with global best practices and practical for both public and private sector adoption.

The government has been building the institutional framework for AI since 2024, when it launched a national AI office to centralize policy, strategic planning, research and regulatory oversight.

Reuters reported at the time that the office’s first-year deliverables included an AI code of ethics, a regulatory framework and a five-year AI technology action plan through 2030.

Zetrix also comes with a long public-sector technology background. The company says it began operations in 2000 as a provider of electronic government services in Malaysia and now works across blockchain, AI, digital identity and cross-border transaction infrastructure.

It has described itself as a company focused on powering public and private-sector systems across ASEAN.

That background makes Zetrix a logical domestic partner for a project at the intersection of identity, government services and AI. It also means the launch will be watched closely as a test of whether Malaysia can move from national AI ambition to usable citizen-facing systems.

Malaysia is not the first country to experiment with political AI avatars. Bloomberg noted that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared in AI-generated multilingual messages, India’s Narendra Modi has used AI to address audiences in multiple Indian languages, and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung used an AI avatar during his election campaign.