Komdigi Rejects an AI Slowdown, Backs Safety by Design and Sector-by-Sector Rules
Indonesia’s digital ministry does not want the world to put the brakes on artificial intelligence, but it does want the technology built more carefully. Responding to calls from some AI company leaders to slow down, Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said on Wednesday that Indonesia favours “safety by design” over a slowdown, CNN Indonesia reported. “So it is not a slowdown, but what we have now is going too far,” she said at the Komdigi office in Jakarta.
Meutya cited experts who argue that today’s AI systems lack adequate safety built in from the start. Advanced technology should be given the time it needs, she said, but it should not be rolled out without proper mitigation. The calls she was answering include a request from Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei that AI companies slow the growth of model capabilities, which followed warnings from researchers about existential risk.
Her deputy, Nezar Patria, described how that caution is meant to turn into rules. Speaking after a plenary session at the parliament complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, he said the national AI roadmap would serve as a shared guide for developers and users, while ministries and agencies would draw up sector-specific guidance of their own, Niaga.Asia reported. He named health, education and financial services as examples. “They will make more specific guidelines,” he said.
What it means in practice
The roadmap itself is still on its way. Nezar said the draft presidential regulation on the National AI Roadmap is being discussed between ministries because its scope is broad, and is being processed at the State Secretariat for harmonisation with the Ministry of Law. The government hopes the President will sign it soon. It follows Komdigi’s earlier drafting of presidential rules on the AI roadmap and ethics and the ethics and safety regulation’s final review at the State Secretariat.
Beyond setting direction for the AI ecosystem, the roadmap includes principles for responsible use, with attention to transparency, accountability and security. Nezar also stressed national values, including Pancasila, arguing that the values built into large language models matter for avoiding bias and discrimination. The focus on safeguards at the design stage echoes Indonesia’s decision to join a global coalition on children’s rights in the AI era.
What to watch: when the President signs the roadmap regulation, which ministries publish sector guidance first, and whether safety by design becomes a binding requirement or stays a guiding principle.