BRIN Chief Arif Satria Proposes a Dedicated AI Law to the DPR and DPD as Komdigi Prefers Boundaries Over Rules

The head of Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Arif Satria, says the country needs a dedicated law on artificial intelligence and has put the idea to both the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representative Council (DPD), detikEdu reported on November 3. He was speaking at the SPARC 2026 event at Universitas Negeri Jakarta.

Arif argued that AI can no longer be separated from daily life and that by 2030 it will top the list of skills employers want. He described three levels of AI skill: understanding it, using it and developing it. Most Indonesians are at the first two levels, he said, while development is the hard part because it raises three issues. The first is infrastructure, meaning semiconductors and chips and, behind them, rare earth elements; BRIN is sorting tin waste from Belitung’s beaches to work out which materials can be classed as rare earths. The second is energy and water, which AI consumes in large amounts. The third is governance, which is where a law comes in.

He added a pointed caveat: the law itself should not be drafted with AI, and students should not use AI to critique it either, or human thinking would go dormant. A law, he said, should set limits so people do not become overly dependent on the technology and should make clear where AI belongs in learning and research.

What it means in practice

The proposal sits awkwardly with the government’s current line. On the same day, Komdigi secretary-general Ismail told a CNBC Indonesia forum in Jakarta that the government does not yet want conventional regulation listing rights, obligations and sanctions. It prefers clear boundaries within which innovation can grow through regulatory sandboxes, and he said ethics comes before regulation. That approach runs through the adaptive five-year national AI roadmap to 2029 and the AI ethics and safety presidential regulations now in final review, which have yet to be signed.

A law would carry more weight than a presidential regulation but would take far longer to pass. What to watch is whether a DPR commission or the DPD takes up a draft, how lawmakers would fit it alongside the pending presidential regulations, and whether Komdigi’s preference for light-touch rules shifts as a result.