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Comment by 開篷樂勢力 on May 17, 2026 at 4:10pm

Sabah in the Age of AI: When Culture Becomes the Strength of the Future

The rise of AI is reshaping the value of human skills. In this period of uncertainty, renowned AI and education expert Ethan Mollick from the Wharton School argues that broad, humanities-based education is becoming increasingly important because it develops critical thinking, communication skills, and adaptability. This perspective creates a major opportunity for Sabah to emerge as a region with unique advantages in the AI era.

Sabah is not only rich in natural resources, but also rich in living cultural experiences that cannot easily be replaced by machines. AI can imitate language, generate images, and analyze data, but it still struggles to fully understand the deeper meanings behind traditions, community relationships, and inherited human experiences. This is where Sabah’s strength becomes especially relevant.

The diverse communities of Sabah — including the Kadazan-Dusun, Bajau, Murut, and Rungus peoples — possess extensive cultural knowledge, from marriage customs to philosophies about humanity’s relationship with nature. This knowledge is not merely heritage; it is a source of creative and social intelligence needed in the future economy. The AI era requires people who can interpret context, build trust, and understand cultural emotions — abilities that come from lived experience, not purely technical training.

Sabah also possesses a close relationship between people and the natural environment. Village life, traditional agricultural practices, handicrafts, and oral traditions cultivate a more holistic way of thinking. In an age of automation, skills such as empathy, storytelling, cultural negotiation, and understanding local identity will become increasingly valuable because they are difficult to automate.

At the same time, Sabah has the potential to become a center for a culture-based creative economy. Cultural tourism, documentation of indigenous languages, traditional performing arts, and local digital content can all grow with the support of AI without losing their authentic identity. AI can serve as a tool to bring Sabah’s heritage to the world, but the people of Sabah themselves remain the true source of meaning and authenticity behind that culture.

What matters most is that Sabah should not pursue technological development in a narrow way. Education in Sabah must combine technology with history, language, arts, and the humanities. This approach aligns with Ethan Mollick’s view that in uncertain times, societies with broad education and strong cultural identity will be more resilient in facing change.

In a world increasingly shaped by AI, Sabah’s greatest advantage may not lie in competing against machines, but in offering something machines can never truly possess: rich human experiences rooted in culture, identity, and meaning.

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