Megawati Tells of Shock at Becoming Victim of AI Misuse

An unusual story comes from Indonesia’s 5th President, Megawati Soekarnoputri. She recounted having been a victim of artificial intelligence (AI) misuse, with her face used in a cake-selling advertisement without her knowledge.

Megawati shared this during a dialogue with Timor-Leste President José Ramos Horta and a number of Nobel Prize and Turing Award-winning scientists at the Megawati Institute building in Central Jakarta on Friday (28/8/2026). Megawati admitted she was shocked when she saw the advertisement.

“I too, ladies and gentlemen, have experienced this. This is also an anecdote. So, there was an advertisement selling cakes. The person featured was me, then my child, and there was also one other of us who was made,” said Megawati.

Megawati admitted she kept wondering when she had ordered the cake. She later learned that the content had been created using AI.

“So, I was shocked. When did I order the cake? It turned out it was done with AI like that,” she said.

The Chairwoman of PDIP reminded that the use of AI must be carried out responsibly. Megawati is concerned that the technology could be used to create content that might cause problems.

“Do not use it for other things until something happens that seems highly undesirable,” she continued.

In her view, the development of AI should be directed towards the benefit of humanity. Megawati questioned whether the world’s current problems are still caused by a lack of knowledge and technology.

“Are we still lacking knowledge and technology? In my opinion, there is actually already so much knowledge,” said Megawati.

“So, as I said earlier regarding AI and various things that should actually be used for the benefit of humanity, because the world must be remembered as one,” she continued.

Megawati believes the main challenge lies in how the knowledge and technology already available can be used appropriately.

“For developing countries like Indonesia, this question is very important to answer. We must be critical when technology and data are used as new hegemonic tools. But we must also strengthen humanitarian responsibility so that technological progress, including AI, is also oriented towards equality between nations and an increasingly just world order,” she said.