Malaysia has recently launched “ILMU,” its first home-grown multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) model, during the inaugural Association of Southeast Asian Nations AI Malaysia Summit 2025 held at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre.
AI model tailored to Malaysian culture
The launch marks a significant step for Malaysia in developing its own AI capabilities tailored to local needs.
Developed by YTL AI Labs in partnership with Universiti Malaya (UM), ILMU is designed as a multimodal large language model (LLM) that understands local culture, context, and daily realities.
This focus ensures the AI model is attuned to the specific nuances of the Malaysian environment.
“Built by Malaysians for Malaysians, ILMU showcases our ability to create world-class AI infrastructure while preserving our linguistic and cultural identity,” officials stated at the launch.
The model’s name, ILMU, stands for Intelek Luhur Malaysia Untukmu, reflecting core values such as context-aware intelligence (“Intelek”), ethical foundations (“Luhur”), cultural fluency (“Malaysia”) and service to all Malaysians (“Untukmu”).
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Philippines launches blockchain network to boost local tech talent
Full AI stack and ecosystem
Beyond the model, YTL also invested in the full AI stack – from local data centres to AI cloud infrastructure in collaboration with Nvidia – and built an ecosystem of more than 10 partners to accelerate adoption.
Benchmark tests position ILMU as the world’s best AI in Bahasa Melayu, surpassing GPT-4, DeepSeek V3 and GPT-5 in Malay MMLU benchmarks, including mastery of dialects like Kelantanese.
Across global metrics, it matches frontier models such as GPT-4o and Llama 3.1.
The launch was attended by Asean Secretary-General Dr. Kao Kim Hourn and Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, underscoring the regional importance of this development.
Gobind, in a statement, applauded the establishment of ILMU, calling it a groundbreaking Malaysian innovation that reflects the national vision for a future driven by technology, inclusivity and cultural relevance.
ILMUchat, the AI Chatbot powered by ILMU, will be available for early access to consumers on Malaysia Day, September 16, 2025.
READ NEXT: UK-based company launches AI translation service
Angelica N. Hall 
Shameeka Voyiya 
Carmela Calling