FEATURE
Sahabat is not just a large language model, it has evolved into a platform that enables startups and innovators to co-create applications. One of the first applications we launched was a spam and scam protection system.
This is only the beginning for us – every month, we expect to release new applications made in Indonesia for Indonesia, using this full stack platform.
When we first launched Sahabat with Jensen Huang, it was about igniting hope and belief. Today, we have fully committed to the initiative and are receiving strong support from the Indonesian government.
Our focus is on three main areas. First, Sahabat will be a sovereign platform supporting innovation and startups in Indonesia. Innovation requires compute power and now we have that capability locally.
Second, we want to deliver citizen services that genuinely help people. We are not trying to compete with global platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini. Our focus is on supporting local languages and cultural nuances. Sahabat already supports regional languages such as Javanese and Sundanese, for example.
Third, we want to support local use cases that involve sensitive sovereign data. We are also developing future citizen services – for instance, helping people access government services or pay taxes through AI-powered tools.
This initiative is not just about Indosat, it’ s a national ecosystem with many companies, startups, universities and researchers contributing.
We are also partnering with NVIDIA through the NVIDIA AI Technology Center( NVAITC) programme, where researchers collaborate with universities on projects that can be converted into real applications.
For us, this is about democratising intelligence and on a personal level I strongly believe that AI is a great equaliser. There are concerns AI will take jobs, but we view AI through a growth mindset where it is used to empower humans, not replace them.
This philosophy applies both within Indosat and across Indonesia. We invest in talent, empower employees to reach their full potential and apply the same thinking at a national level. n
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INTELLIGENT CIO APAC www. intelligentcio. com