Deputy Minister Calls for AI Ethics to Be Embedded from the Design Stage

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs (Wamenkomdigi) Nezar Patria has stressed that the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology must apply the principle of ethics by design, meaning ethics must be implemented from the initial design stage. The ethics by design concept means principles such as transparency, accountability, and security must be applied in the adoption of AI technology. “I think it is time for AI developers and the community that adopts AI to no longer just talk about principles that are followed voluntarily. Globally, there is now a shift we call an ethical drift, where these principles must be presented as evidence,” Nezar said at the Indonesia Ethical AI Summit 2026 in Jakarta on Wednesday. Nezar said the development of AI currently shows a global shift from merely applying ethical principles voluntarily to a demand for proof that these principles are genuinely implemented in AI products and services. According to him, the need to apply ethics from the design stage is becoming increasingly important with the development of agentic AI technology, namely AI systems that can perform tasks autonomously. Under these conditions, he said, aspects of delegation of authority and accountability must be clearly designed to anticipate the emergence of undesirable behaviour. Nezar gave the example of an agentic AI simulation conducted in Canada to handle airline passengers affected by flight cancellations or delays due to bad weather. In the simulation, the AI system was able to speed up the process of transferring passengers from the previous eight to ten hours to less than two hours. However, in one simulation, around 1,200 passengers were placed on the wrong flight. Therefore, Nezar said the ethics by design approach needs to be implemented through a shifting left concept, which means ensuring all aspects of governance and risk mitigation have been applied from the initial AI design stage. “So shifting left means we want to recheck from the beginning. From the start, it must be ensured that all regulations regarding ethics governing artificial intelligence (AI) are adopted by AI developers or those who adopt AI technology,” he said.