KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 7 -- Over 400,000 civil servants in Malaysia now have access to generative AI tools powered by Google Gemini. They are provided through the newly announced AI at Work 2.0 initiative by the Ministry of Digital and Google Cloud.

The initiative is essentially an expansion of the original AI at Work trial, which was revealed during the launch of the National AI Office last December. The pilot phase involved 270 public officers from various government agencies.

Despite the small-scale trial, it appears that feedback was positive enough to justify the expansion. According to the joint statement by the Ministry of Digital and Google Cloud, 97 per cent of the participants experienced weekly time savings of up to 3.25 hours pe...