House Member Proposes Indonesia Immediately Enact an AI Law

A member of the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission XIII, Marinus Gea, has proposed that Indonesia immediately enact a law specifically regulating artificial intelligence (AI). He argued that the development of AI, which touches nearly every sector of life, requires more comprehensive regulation through a standalone law. “AI today has a very wide scope. It can explore information sources around the world without limits, scrape millions of articles, store data, train models, and produce answers that can ultimately replace people reading news directly. This kind of AI freedom is very unlikely to be limited only within the scope of the Copyright Law,” he said in a statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday. Marinus stated that AI currently impacts not only the copyright and journalism sectors but also education, health, industry, and various other sectors. According to him, if there is a desire to limit AI operations, the state must have a clear instrument and not only through the Copyright Law currently being drafted. Therefore, he deemed it necessary to create a separate law governing AI operations in Indonesia. “The law would serve as a legal umbrella regulating all sectors affected by AI, including copyright and journalism,” he said. The legislator from the commission overseeing regulatory reform also assessed that the ministry responsible for digital transformation should be the leading sector in regulating AI operations in Indonesia, while provisions on copyright and journalism could be regulated as part of that regulation. He also expressed hope that discussions on AI within the Copyright Bill would be conducted in depth so that the resulting regulation can truly address technological developments without creating new problems in its implementation.