AI and the New Infrastructure of Development

Currently, Indonesia is only ready to become an AI user. Its applications are already being used in offices, schools, media outlets, companies, and government agencies. However, adopting technology developed abroad is a different matter than developing the ability to create, direct, and monitor it. Indonesia's technical, political, and intellectual readiness are insufficient to make AI a national innovation field.

 

AI development requires data centers, high-computing chips, digital networks, cooling systems, and a stable electricity supply. The International Energy Agency estimates that global data center electricity consumption will more than double to approximately 945 terawatt-hours by 2030. Without domestic energy and computing capacity, Indonesian companies will remain dependent on AI services from global companies (IEA, 2025; Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, 2025).

 

The government must also oversee technology companies developing AI. AI systems can impact citizens' access to information, jobs, credit, education, and public services. When the models and infrastructure are sourced from abroad, the government has less room to scrutinize their operation or require changes.

 

On the other hand, AI users need to understand the data sources, model limitations, the languages ​​represented, and the decisions that must still be made by humans. Systems trained largely on data from outside Indonesia may ignore local social, cultural, and historical contexts.

 

The key question is: will AI enhance Indonesia's ability to think, create, and solve problems, or make society increasingly dependent on machine judgment?

 

Shannon Vallor and Tillmann Vierkant emphasize that current AI systems cannot yet be moral agents. They lack the moral consciousness and judgment needed to be responsible. Responsibility remains with the humans who design, use, monitor, and regulate them. This is referred to as the vulnerability gap, where citizens bear the impact of decisions, but the systems and the people behind them are not in a direct relationship of responsibility to them.

 

Seth Lazar emphasizes AI and its relationship to the issue of power. He calls automated systems that determine what individuals can know, acquire, and choose automatic authorities. The use of AI cannot be judged solely on its purpose. The way power is exercised and the parties authorized to exercise it must also be examined.

 

If AI models, data, standards, and limits continue to be determined overseas, Indonesia will simply be a user. Being ready means being able to develop the technology, oversee its implementation, and determine the interests it should serve.