Jakarta. Indonesia is planning to develop its very own version of DeepSeek, the Chinese low-cost artificial intelligence or AI that is taking the world by storm.

According to the president’s senior economic advisor Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, work is already underway for Indonesia to develop its own open-source, large language model. The ex-investment czar is upbeat that Indonesia can carry out this ambitious plan, citing the chatbot’s low development costs and Indonesia’s highly skilled youth as some factors that made this project feasible.

“We have set up a team to establish our own DeepSeek. … If we don’t try, how will we know [the outcome]?. It is not costly, actually. We can do it because there are many smart people here,” Luhut told the Indonesia Economic Summit in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Later that day, Luhut told reporters that the upcoming AI-powered chatbot would be able to carry out text-based tasks in Indonesian and English. 

“It is an open-source [AI]. So we have recruited a group of young talented Indonesians to work on this AI app. They will present [the Indonesian DeepSeek] to Mr. President [Prabowo Subianto] in two weeks from now,” Luhut told the press.

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For reference, the term “open-source” means that the software’s source codes are available for anyone to use or modify. Luhut did not say how much building the Indonesian counterpart to DeepSeek cost, only saying that its development would be “inexpensive”. DeepSeek claimed that it only spent less than $6 million to build the AI model. Its American rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT is estimated to have required hundreds of millions of American dollars to make. 

“This sort of digital transformation is set to improve Indonesia’s efficiency,” Luhut said.

Arsjad Rasjid, who chairs the Indonesian Business Council’s board of trustees, shared his thoughts on the country having its own AI app. The seasoned businessman said that he hoped the private sector could take part in AI development.

“If China can, why can’t Indonesia do the same? We have the human capital. … Open source is all about collaboration. The government will start with the ongoing project that they have. The private sector and others can chip in later,” Arsjad told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

At present, Indonesia is mulling blocking DeepSeek after the AI app got banned in several countries over security and privacy concerns. Indonesia is also currently drafting a regulation on AI use. This regulatory framework is expected to enable a more responsible use of AI in financial services and education, among others.

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