17/02/2026

TUESDAY | FEB 17, 2026

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When algorithms go rogue S TOP. You were online doing economic survival, hunting discounted Milo 3-in-1, like a rakyat fighting inflation with quiet dignity. Then the algorithm – So when AI “goes rogue”, usually it is this: 0 Misaligned goals 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. A T E D M

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 ù small embarrassment. AI makes a mistake ù 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. AzuraAbas is the executive editor of theSun. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

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. A K C I K A B A S

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. M A R I N B Y A Z LET’S be real. Our neighbourhoods have changed faster than a Myvi on a highway. We are all so busy and caffeinated that we rarely take a second to breathe, let alone have a chat with the person living next door. Conversations have shrunk to the size of an emoji. Our connection to the community is often limited to how many bars of 5G we can get on our porches. Remember the days when the “Aunty” next door would hand over a bowl of curry laksa over the fence and you would return the bowl with some kuih ? Those small acts built a bridge. Today, we have replaced those bridges with eight-foot-tall automated gates and CCTV cameras that notify our phones every time a stray cat sneezes near our compound. It feels like connections are now built for convenience, not care. As the number of cars on our streets grows, so does the“creative”parking that erodes our sanity. We have all seen it: the viral neighbour wars of late 2025, where a parking dispute in Cheras got so heated that the local council showed up and fined everyone on the street. That was a RM30,000 community gift that nobody asked for. Or consider the infamous “Puan Sri” saga where a woman who claimed her title gave her the right to park on a neighbour’s porch, then demanded to see their wedding certificate as proof they lived there! When did we stop being neighbours and start being private investigators? I often think of my childhood, when riding my tiny bicycle around the neighbourhood felt like a grand adventure. Every family knew my name – mostly so they could tell my mother if I was being mischievous. Every corner was a safe zone, and I felt part of a giant, ungated family. Now, I worry about the next generation. As we look towards the Urban Renewal Act 2026, where cities are becoming denser and taller, how do we show our children the joy of a “ kampung spirit ” in a concrete jungle? LETTERS letters@thesundaily.com

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:

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Bringing back warmth and harmony to our neighbourhoods

Joining clean-up events can bond communities. – AMIRUL SYAFIQ/THESUN

meals and the security of knowing that if you accidentally leave your gate open, your neighbour will call you instead of posting a picture of it on a complaint group. By slowing down, we can bring back the warmth and harmony that once made our streets feel less like a parking lot and more like a home. Tiviyah Kunasekaran Seremban

programmes; they are just people deciding not to be strangers. Perhaps it can start with something small – a friendly hello that does not involve a complaint about a tree branch or a cup of coffee shared on the porch. Maybe, it can be joining a “Hari Cuci Malaysia” event to clean the drains together because nothing bonds people like a mutual hatred for a clogged longkang . If we pause for a moment, we will remember what truly matters – the laughter, the shared

It seems we have traded the freedom of the streets for the safety of a screen. Yet, all is not lost. Communities are like sourdough; they just need a little warmth to rise again. We saw this in early 2026 when a Chinese aunty became a “second mother” to her neighbour’s daughter, proving that trust and love can bridge any ethnic divide over 14 years. We saw it in the “Aunty Sheila” squad who spent years helping their stateless neighbours finally get their ICs. These are not government