Ministry Explains US Tech Industry Input on Indonesia's Draft AI Regulation
The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) has clarified the points raised by United States technology industry players during consultations on the draft Presidential Regulation (Perpres) concerning the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) innovation development in Indonesia. Aju Widyasari, Director of AI and New Technology Ecosystems (AIKITA) at Kemkomdigi, stated that the consultation was part of the regulatory drafting process involving various stakeholders, including global technology providers. “Yesterday, there was a formal submission from the US-ASEAN Business Council, the US Chamber, and US technology providers questioning several matters related to AI ethics,” Aju said during a discussion at the Indonesia AI Ethics Summit 2026 in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to Aju, the majority of the input concerned the technical aspects of implementing AI ethics across various sectors. The US companies also requested clarification on the implementation mechanism for AI ethics, the instruments used for oversight, and the standards serving as the basis for the regulation. In response, Kemkomdigi affirmed that the draft Presidential Regulation references various global guidelines, including the ASEAN AI ethics guide, UNESCO, IEEE, and other international forums. “They needed clarity on whether the formulation of ethics had been benchmarked against international standards. Of course it has, because we are quite active in those international forums,” Aju explained.
Furthermore, Kemkomdigi elaborated to the US parties on the division of roles among actors in the AI ecosystem, the supervisory mechanism, and the incident reporting provisions outlined in the draft Perpres. The US side specifically highlighted the requirement for reporting incidents based on scale. Aju emphasised that the government maintains the provision requiring all AI incidents to be reported, including those not classified as high-risk. “This was one of the concerns for the US side because they wanted only high-risk incidents to be reported. In our view, all incidents must be reported because we are still in the learning stage. Small incidents, if left unchecked, can become big ones,” she said. She added that the US parties were able to accept the government’s explanation regarding the substance of the regulation contained in the draft Perpres.
Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid previously revealed the latest developments regarding the Presidential Regulation on AI governance. She noted that public consultations were conducted with several US companies, leading to adjustments in the policy draft. “We held further discussions yesterday and have adopted the input to find a middle ground between innovation and protection,” Meutya said.