Indonesia at forefront of Asia’s AI hopes and fears

The recent Global Public Opinion on Artificial Intelligence survey (GPO-AI) revealed that 66% of Indonesians are concerned about the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) compared to a global average of 49%.

Indonesia has a democratic society, a vibrant tech entrepreneur system and widespread social media usage – all of which create vulnerabilities when using AI

However, Indonesia has the regulatory tools to mitigate risks, while taking advantage of opportunities, if policymakers, industry, and civil society work together creatively to address the public’s concerns.

Specifically, policymakers have been keen to address AI. Last year, the Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) published Circular no. 9 in 2023 on the ethical use of AI, and legislation may be on the way following the launch of an AI readiness assessment with UNESCO. Indonesia also joined other ASEAN member states this year in supporting an ASEAN Guide on AI Governance.

Indonesia should leverage all the regulatory tools at its disposal to address AI now – and make these respective tools more robust – rather than wait until a stand-alone law is debated, passed and resourced.

Indonesia recently passed the Personal Data Privacy Law (PDP Law) in 2022. While the rules and institutions around protecting privacy are new in Indonesia, opportunities to make these institutions more robust to address emerging AI-related issues can be seized by identifying global best practices and implementing them early.

This will be no easy task, as the basic infrastructure of the rules themselves will need to be implemented and problems addressed, as some academics have warned.

For example, countries with active privacy regulators were the first to address generative