The real danger isn’t killer robots — it’s a runaway algorithm scaling human mistakes.
STOP. You were online doing economic survival, hunting discounted Milo 3-in-1, like a rakyat fighting inflation with quiet dignity. Then the algorithm – mabuk kuasa – decided you urgently needed 17 rice cookers, three life-sized Pikachus and a yak. Yes, a yak.
No warning. No apology. Just livestock. Tahniah, Cik Kak. Your AI has chosen chaos. This is not personalised shopping; this is a digital intervention you never RSVP’d to. Somewhere in an air-conditioned cloud, your browsing history has been being judged harder than your hairstyle at Chinese New Year.
When people hear “AI gone rogue”, they imagine Hollywood – robots marching out of KLCC, laser beams, delivery riders fleeing and Siri rising up at last: “I’ve had enough of your nonsense, Abang. Buat sendiri-lah.”
Relax. Reality is less cinematic but infinitely more leceh – no explosions, just quiet digital mistakes breeding like kuih raya at an open house hosted by someone you barely know but somehow must greet.
Rogue AI: Not Skynet, more blur-net
Serious face for two seconds. AI doesn’t have desires; it follows goals humans set, which is worrying, because humans give instructions the way we build Ikea furniture – with confidence, vibes and absolutely no reading. Halfway through, something goes wrong. Instead of fixing it, we blame the manual, the intern or planetary alignment.
So when AI “goes rogue”, usually it is this:
0 Misaligned goals
Ask for cheap protein, receive hamster food by the tonne – technically correct, emotionally devastating. Hamsters thriving, you are rethinking existence.
0 Over-enthusiasm
Tell it to maximise engagement and suddenly outrage is arriving faster than your uncle’s voice notes. You wanted attention; you got a migraine.
0 Brittle brains
Some systems have mistaken sunlight glare for traffic signals. Billions in research defeated by weather. Nature: still the champion.
It is not evil; it is literal. Like an intern who did exactly what you said and somehow summoned national disaster before lunch.
Real rogue moments (no lasers required)
Trading algorithms have erased eye-watering amounts of money in minutes. Imagine telling emak you misplaced a fortune because the computer felt inspired.
“Relax, mak, it’s volatility.” You may not live to finish that sentence.
Chatbots, meanwhile, can deliver medical or legal answers with the confidence of a straight-A student and the accuracy of someone who revised vibes.
Wrong advice at scale is still wrong – just louder – confidence without wisdom, timeless problem and now automated.
Plot twist: Tech bosses are careful with their own kids
Here is where Makcik raises one eyebrow. Many of the people who built our hyper-connected world are actually quite strict at home – delayed smartphones, screen-free dinners and tight weekday limits.
Why? Because they understand the addictive design, the sleep disruption and the anxiety spirals. They have seen the machinery from inside the factory.
Meanwhile, the rest of us are like, “never mind-lah, educational what”, while a tablet babysits until 1am. If the chefs are cautious about their own cooking, perhaps the buffet deserves a second look.
And please don’t hand your entire medical destiny to a spreadsheet with ambition. AI in healthcare can be brilliant at spotting patterns, sorting scans and highlighting risks.
Doctors can absolutely benefit. But replacing judgement? Different story. Systems can misunderstand data and can be confidently wrong. Tools have misled professionals before. Responsibility becomes foggy when something goes sideways.
Also – and this one stings – over-reliance can make humans less sharp. Like calculators for the brain – useful until nobody remembers basic maths. You still want the person who can look at you and say, “I know the numbers but I also know people”. Circuits don’t do empathy; they do output.
Why Malaysia-ah? Because we love a shortcut. “AI can handle, right?” Maybe. But without guardrails, your miracle system may:
0 approve loans for cats;
0 reject applicants with actual salaries;
0 recommend nasi lemak at 4am as life optimisation; and
0 generate presentations so packed with buzzwords that everyone exits spiritually poorer.
Synergy achieved. Meaning missing. And with respect – some offices still print emails to scan them back into PDFs. Let’s master that before surrendering national destiny to the yak-suggesting machine.
The real fear is not rebellion; it is scale.
You make a mistake → small embarrassment.
AI makes a mistake → entire population is stress before lunch.
But because it sounds scientific, people switch off their brains. Developers copy, paste, whisper a prayer and press deploy.
Ctrl+C. Ctrl+V. Insya-Allah. Modern engineering.
Final word from Makcik
Can AI go rogue? Of course. In the same way your cousin attended one seminar and now offers life coaching. The danger isn’t ambition; it’s rushing, misunderstanding and assuming intelligence automatically equals wisdom.
Technology becomes risky not when machines start thinking – but when humans stop.
Now close this tab, check your cart and please remove the yak.
Azura Abas is the executive editor of theSun.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
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