Indonesia’s Vice Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Stella Christie, has urged the nation to shift its approach to artificial intelligence, arguing that the country must stop treating AI as a mere technology trend and start identifying the specific national problems it intends to solve.
Speaking at the “AI Governance for the Greater Decent: Balancing Innovation and Ethics” event organized by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta on April 22, Christie warned that a lack of strategic purpose could leave Indonesia as a passive participant in the tech revolution.
“Without that question, we will only become users, not creators,” Christie stated, emphasizing that a clear sense of purpose is required to shape future investments in talent development and research and development around open-source ecosystems.
The Risk of Data Dependency
Christie cautioned that without a comprehensive strategy, Indonesia risks becoming a mere data supplier for global AI companies without receiving added value in return.
She advocated for more discussions on how to make AI useful for the country, rather than the other way around, urging government, industry, and universities to build meaningful capabilities while protecting uniquely human abilities.
Prioritizing Cognitive Thinking Over Tech Adoption
The Vice Minister highlighted a common misunderstanding of AI literacy, noting that it is often wrongly viewed as simply knowing how to operate AI applications.
According to Christie, the true priority should be the ability to think critically and determine if AI outputs are accurate, relevant, or misleading.
Drawing on her background as a cognitive scientist, she explained that human intelligence possesses a fundamental advantage: the ability to learn from very small amounts of data.
While AI systems require vast datasets to function and can still make mistakes after millions of data points, a three-year-old child can master a native language and identify everyday objects like bicycles with limited examples.
Ethics, Innovation, and Global Competition
Christie rejected the notion that ethics and innovation are in conflict, citing the founding of the AI company Anthropic by former OpenAI researchers as evidence that moral responsibility can drive scientific progress.
She argued that scientific curiosity, rather than immediate commercial demand, often leads to the most transformative technologies that provide real-world value.
The Global AI Value Chain
Addressing the dominance of the United States and China, Christie identified three core components of AI: algorithms, computing power, and data.
She admitted it is “extremely difficult” for Indonesia to catch up with the US or China regarding algorithms and the hundreds of millions of dollars required for computing infrastructure.
However, she pointed to Indonesia’s status as the world’s fourth most populous country as a critical advantage. Christie argued that if the nation controls its data, it can use that leverage to acquire algorithms and computing power.
she urged countries in the Global South to treat data as a strategic asset rather than a by-product of digital activity.
Potential Next Steps
Moving forward, Indonesia may seek to implement new frameworks for data management to better leverage its population size in the global value chain.
The government could also pivot educational priorities toward cognitive learning and critical thinking to ensure human capital remains competitive against automation.
there may be an increase in R&D investments specifically targeting open-source ecosystems that align with national priorities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if Indonesia does not develop a clear AI strategy?
Vice Minister Stella Christie warned that without a clear strategy, Indonesia risks becoming a data supplier for global AI companies without gaining added value in return.
How does the human brain’s learning process differ from AI?
Humans can learn from very small amounts of data and form abstractions, whereas AI systems remain heavily dependent on vast datasets to perform effectively.
What are the three main components of AI according to Stella Christie?
AI is fundamentally built on algorithms, data, and computing power.
How can nations in the Global South best leverage their unique data to ensure they aren’t left behind in the AI race?
