I think he was just trying to teach Malick to broaden his horizons, to try doing something that even he, a super powerful evil world-manipulating billionaire, had never done before.
The thing that I wasn't quite sure about was the final line of the episode, when he was talking to Giyera on the phone and Giyera said he sounded afraid. Did that mean that Malick was afraid that he didn't fit into Hive's new world order?
Btw, speaking of the Neo/Matrix comparison before, the "he sounded afraid" line immediately took me to Starship Troopers. (the brain bug scene at the very end)