Anwar to debut an AI double

KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is about to do something very few heads of government have done: send an artificial intelligence version of himself out to meet the public.

The avatar has been built by Malaysian digital infrastructure firm Zetrix AI Bhd and is called PMX AI, a nod to Anwar’s place as the country’s 10th prime minister. It is expected to make its debut within days, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

PMX AI has been trained on Anwar’s own writings, speeches, and the record of his government’s policies, so that when it speaks, it looks and sounds unmistakably like him. It is an intiative by Anwar’s political party, PKR.

“AI will transform governance and politics,” Zetrix group managing director TS Wong said.

An AI avatar is, at its simplest, a digital stand-in for a real person, capable of holding conversations with users. What sets this one apart is its autonomy. Engineers built it to be agentic, meaning it can take a task, break it into steps, and carry it out largely on its own without a human checking in at every turn.

According to Wong, Zetrix has developed what it calls a “personal knowledge” model – an AI system that is fed continuously with the prime minister’s recent speeches and remarks, which helps to sharpen its responses in real time into something closer to a genuine likeness.

The PMO has produced a launch video to introduce it.

“No leader can be everywhere, at every moment. That is the reality,” the narration begins. “It’s not merely an avatar. It is a digital extension of myself. Ready to listen, assist and serve the people.”

The visuals cast Anwar by turns as an astronaut, a caped superhero, and even a character that resembles Neo from cult movie, The Matrix.

In practice, the ambitions are more government-like.

The avatar is meant to help Malaysians navigate government services: renewing a driver’s licence, say, then sending a payment link and confirming the transaction has gone through before moving to the next step.

PMX AI converses fluently in English and Malay, and understands regional dialects, colloquial expressions and Malay slang.

It i’s also designed to better guide people toward government training programs and job placements by building a fuller picture of a person’s circumstances through conversation.

Students, similarly, should be able to receive course and career suggestions tailored to their interests and aptitude once PMX AI is up and running.

The project fits the image Anwar is keen to cultivate as Malaysia heads toward national elections that must be held by early 2028: a leader at ease discussing artificial intelligence, digital investment and the country’s push toward higher-value jobs.

He is also keen to burnish his image with younger voters, whose support he will need.

Malaysia would not be the first country to put a leader’s face on an AI system, however.

AI avatars of world leaders are increasingly moving from novelty value to official communication. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has appeared in AI-generated multilingual messages, while India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has used AI to address audiences in multiple Indian languages.

South Korean president Lee Jae Myung used an AI avatar to extensively represent him during his election campaign, allowing it to answer voters’ questions and deliver campaign messages.