Indonesia’s national plans for a sovereign AI fund will help them to develop, focus and govern the artificial intelligence system within the country. Government will still be able to maintain the necessary control, which will include model ownership, data sovereignty as well as the infrastructure that is used for the actual AI development. This will also help to position them as a regional hub specifically in the technology sector.
Ambitious plans in the technology environment
Authorities overseeing the development of artificial intelligence in Indonesia have proposed a “sovereign AI fund” to finance the archipelago’s ambitions to become a regional hub for the fast-growing technology, a government document showed. Doing a breakdown of the key aspects (as mentioned above) of sovereign AI will also help to gain a better understanding of its inner workings:
- Infrastructure development
- This entails the building of all the necessary computing capacity as well as data governance that will be required to support the AI applications.
- Data sovereignty
- This important feature will ensure that all sensitive data is not only stored, but also processes within the national borders as well as under local jurisdiction.
- Model ownership
- This is the development or full control of the core AI models. This falls under either the government agencies or local entities.
Last month, Reuters reported that Southeast Asia’s largest economy would release its first national roadmap on AI in a bid to attract foreign investment as it looks to join the global AI and chip-making race. The race has seen neighboring Malaysia secure billions of dollars from global tech firms seeking to build critical infrastructure to meet growing demand for cloud and AI services. The Indonesia strategy, released in the form of a 179-page white paper seen by Reuters, recommends, among other things, a sovereign
Funding the future of digital development
AI fund mainly handled by the country’s new sovereign wealth fund Danantara Indonesia, which controls over $900 billion in assets. Danantara comes second to the Indonesian Investment Authority as the sovereign wealth fund of Indonesia. Rosan Roeslani currently serves as the chairman of this agency. Danantara is a fusion of certain of the functions between the Indonesia Investment Authority as well as the country’s Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises.
The paper did not specify the amount that would be needed, but estimated a 2027 to 2029 timeline to set up the fund, and a public-private model to finance Indonesia’s AI push. It also suggests increasing fiscal incentives for domestic investors in AI, without providing details. The strategy paper, which the communications and digital ministry said still awaits public feedback before the final draft, maps Indonesia’s computational readiness for AI and makes recommendations for AI-related policy strategies until 2030.
Drafting a roadmap to success
“Indonesia right now is in the early stages of AI adoption,” the document reads. Industry players including Chinese giant Huawei and Indonesia’s biggest technology company GoToย GOTO.JK contributed to the report. An April report by the Boston Consulting Group said ASEAN nations were positioned for substantial AI-driven gains, with GDP contributions ranging from 2.3% to 3.1% by 2027, and Indonesia could see the highest impact in terms of absolute gross domestic output growth.
The roadmap also details challenges for Indonesia including a lack of talent, low research funding, uneven connectivity outside big cities, risks of misinformation and data leaks. Global tech companies have courted the AI drive in Indonesia, includingย Nvidia NVDA.Oย andย Microsoft MSFT.O.
With the planned AI roadmap, the country is aiming to position itself as a digital innovation leader within Southeast Asia. The roadmap itself will give a detailed framework for the overall AI growth. Included within this will be certain recommendations for the application of these innovations in various sectors within the economy. These sectors include agriculture, public service as well as healthcare. This roadmap will be the guiding blueprint with which the domestic AI ecosystem will be built.
GCN.com/REUTERS.