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Google to Invest $2 Billion in Malaysian Data Center, Cloud Hub

FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
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Google to Invest $2 Billion in Malaysian Data Center, Cloud Hub

FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The Google logo is seen on the Google house at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US January 10, 2024. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo

Google plans to invest $2 billion in Malaysia, developing its first data center and a Google Cloud hub in the latest big foray by a US tech giant in the Southeast Asian country.
According to The Associated Press, the news follows Microsoft's recent announcement that it would put $2.2 billion over the next four years into building Malaysia’s new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hailed Google’s investment as a sign of faith in Malaysia’s governance and economy. Anwar said Thursday that the investment is expected to add $3.2 billion to the economy and create 26,500 jobs by 2030.
The investments are a coup for Anwar as he seeks to consolidate his strength against a strong Islamic opposition.
Google said in a statement that the new hubs will be developed at a business park in central Malaysia's Selangor state, to meet growing demand for cloud services and for artificial intelligence literacy programs for Malaysian students and educators.
Malaysia will be the 12th country to house a Google data center. The Malaysian Google Cloud hub — which will deliver services to large enterprises, startups and the public sector, will join 40 regions and 121 zones currently in operation around the world, it said.
“This investment builds on our partnership with the government of Malaysia to advance its ‘Cloud First Policy,’ including best-in-class cybersecurity standards,” said Ruth Porat, Alphabet Inc.'s president and chief financial officer.
Anwar met with Porat and other business leaders during visits to the US last year.

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AI Chatbots Must Learn to Say 'Help!' Says Microsoft Exec

A Microsoft logo is seen in Los Angeles, California US November 7, 2017. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is seen in Los Angeles, California US November 7, 2017. (Reuters)
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AI Chatbots Must Learn to Say 'Help!' Says Microsoft Exec

A Microsoft logo is seen in Los Angeles, California US November 7, 2017. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is seen in Los Angeles, California US November 7, 2017. (Reuters)

Generative AI tools will save companies lots of time and money, promises Vik Singh, a Microsoft vice president, even if the models must learn to admit when they just don't know what to do.
"Just to be really frank, the thing that's really missing today is that a model doesn't raise its hands and say 'Hey, I'm not sure, I need help,'" Singh told AFP in an interview.
Since last year, Microsoft, Google and their competitors have been rapidly deploying generative AI applications like ChatGPT, which produce all kinds of content on demand and give users the illusion of omniscience.
But despite progress, they still "hallucinate," or invent answers.
This is an important problem for the Copilot executive to solve: Singh's corporate customers can't afford for their AI systems to go off the rails, even occasionally.
Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, this week said he saw many of his customers increasingly frustrated with the meanderings of Microsoft's Copilot.
Singh insisted that "really smart people" were trying to find ways for a chatbot to admit "when it doesn't know the right answer and to ask for help."
'Real savings'
A more humble model would be no less useful, in Singh's opinion. Even if the model has to turn to a human in 50 percent of cases, that still saves "tons of money."
At one Microsoft client, "every time a new request comes in, they spend $8 to have a customer service rep answer it, so there are real savings to be had, and it's also a better experience for the customer because they get a faster response."
Singh arrived at Microsoft in January and this summer took over as head of the teams developing "Copilot," Microsoft's AI assistant that specializes in sales, accounting and online services.
These applications have the gargantuan task of bringing in revenue and justifying the massive investments in generative AI.
At the height of the AI frenzy, start-ups driving the technology were promising systems so advanced that they would "uplift humanity," in the words of Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, which is mainly funded by Microsoft.
But for the time being, the new technology is mainly used to boost productivity, and hopefully profits.
According to Microsoft, Copilot can do research for salespeople, freeing up time to call customers. Lumen, a telecom company, "saves around $50 million a year" doing this, said Singh.
Singh's teams are working on integrating Copilot directly into the tech giant's software and making it more autonomous.
"Let's say I'm a sales rep and I have a customer call," suggested the executive. Two weeks later, the model can "nudge the rep to go follow up, or better, just go and automatically send the email on the rep's behalf because it's been approved to do so."
'First inning'
In other words, before finding a solution to global warming, AI is expected to rid humanity of boring, repetitive chores.
"We're in the first inning," Singh said. "A lot of these things are productivity based, but they obviously have huge benefits."
Will all these productivity gains translate into job losses?
Leaders of large firms, such as K Krithivasan, boss of Indian IT giant TCS, have declared that generative AI will all but wipe out call centers.
But Singh, like many Silicon Valley executives, is counting on technology to make humans more creative and even create new jobs.
He pointed to his experience at Yahoo in 2008, when a dozen editors chose the articles for the home page.
"We came up with the idea of using AI to optimize this process, and some people asked 'Oh my God, what's going to happen to the employees?'" said Singh.
The automated system made it possible to renew content more quickly, thereby increasing the number of clicks on links but also the need for new articles.
"In the end," said the executive, "we had to recruit more editors."