Left Behind In AI Adoption, Government Boosts Digital Infrastructure Regulations And Equitableness

Illustration of artificial intelligence (photo: Pexels)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has begun to set priority directions in developing artificial intelligence (AI) nationally, amid the acceleration of massive AI adoption globally.

According to the Expert Staff for Socio-Economic and Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, Wijaya Kusumawardhana, the focus of the current government is to fill the national AI ecosystem, strengthen regulations, and encourage collaboration between the public and private sectors.

"So, first, we already have a study on the reacity, we already have an adoption of the sector. The important thing is to build this ecosystem, we will fill it out," said Wijaya at the Ngopi Bareng Komdigi event on Friday, July 11 in Jakarta.

Even though he is considered lagging behind other countries, Wijaya emphasized that this is due to the wide area of Indonesia, and the uneven acceleration of digital infrastructure in Western and Eastern Indonesia.

"We geographically are very broad. Not to mention that there is an infrastructure gap between the western region and the east stone. This is also an issue that we will continue to push in parallel," he said.

Currently, the government is targeting to increase the status of AI regulations from previously only in the form of circulars (SE) to Presidential Regulations (Perpres), whose goal is that the use of AI can be more structured, starting from government agencies and in the future reaching business actors to the wider community.

In addition to regulations, the government is also considering the discourse on establishing a special institution for AI governance, as has been done by the Thai White Elephant.

He mentioned that this institution will be tasked with coordinating the direction of policy, supervision, and the development of the AI ecosystem as a whole and autonomous.

"In Thailand, the information I heard that they already have the agency to identify it (AI management plan). So this is what we hope if there is, it will be even better, so it will be more autonomous and easier," added Wijaya.