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The Malaysianist

Brainjam

What's left after the AI gold rush?

No silver bullets — that's for sure.

Sep 12, 2025
∙ Paid
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Today, we have a Brainjam post. This is a section on The Malaysianist for founding members.

If you are on the fence, no worries. The section is a mainstay, but this is perhaps the best time to upgrade or hop aboard the newsletter as rates go up October 1.

More on the price hike here 👇🏽

Price update for The Malaysianist

Price update for The Malaysianist

Emmanuel Samarathisa
·
Sep 1
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📋 Programming note: The next two issues will cover Southeast and News, Ideas & Everything in Between. Which one lands first depends on which I wrap up sooner.

Keep an eye out for both. I’ve got you covered for the long weekend.

You’re reading a paid version of The Malaysianist, a newsletter on money and power by writer and journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa.

I run monthly and annual subscriptions. There’s also the atas or founding member tier where you get all the perks of an annual subscription and more, such as an annual or founder’s report and insight into how this little corner of the internet fared throughout the year.

💡 The founding member tier is a sliding one, meaning it starts at US$60/year and you can raise it as high as you want — in case you want to give more, which I welcome anytime.

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By now, you’ve probably used some form of AI to complete a task or two.

I’m not going to wade into whether you should outsource your clumsy copy to AI in the hope of sounding like Ernest Hemingway or the next hotshot trader on Bursa.

Neither am I going to fuss over how you use AI to look or sound smart. I know some journalists are trying to do some mental gymnastics with guidelines and such.

Not sure what that’s going to do when we fail to do real work – that is holding the powerful to account.

I’ll spare you this rant for the end of the newsletter where I talk about the future of the newsroom (including mine) in the age of AI.

First, I’ll get to the meat of the article: what some of my peers in the AI space are doing and thinking.

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