beritabernas.com – Muhammad Bima Januri, Deputy Executive Director of Technology & Infrastructure at Rembug Digital Indonesia, said AI is advancing rapidly in Indonesia, but this progress also brings major ethical and security challenges.
Without clear rules, the technology can harm human dignity through vulgar content and digital manipulation. Therefore, he said Indonesia must immediately establish clear regulations for AI use.
“Those rules are essential to protect dignity and reduce vulgar content that can damage society,” Januri told beritabernas.com on Friday, January 9, 2026.
Bima called the current era “Mimic Intelligence.” He believes innovation and regulation must move together so ethical challenges can be managed. “Ethics must be the main guide for AI development in Indonesia,” he said.
The danger of ethics-free algorithms
Bima cited the generative AI model Grok on platform X (Twitter). He said without ethical oversight, Mimic Intelligence can cause big problems.
“Unlike other models that refuse commands that break norms, Grok gives users total freedom, which can be dangerous,” he said.
He added that such models only compute statistics and cannot distinguish between art and abuse, so they risk generating face manipulations without consent. “If an algorithm can systematically damage someone’s honor, it is ethically defective and must be limited,” he said.
When asked who is most responsible, Bima assigned roles to developers, platforms, and users.
“Developers must ensure their AI algorithms follow strict ethical standards and increase transparency,” he said, adding that platforms must have content moderation policies to prevent illegal material.
Users also have a role. “Good digital literacy and awareness must be instilled so people understand the dangers of unethical AI use,” Bima added.
Regulatory push for Komdigi
On policy, Bima urged the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) to keep technology grounded in humanity. He highlighted a technical recommendation to require AI platforms to use cryptographic metadata standards such as C2PA, which can help distinguish authentic content from AI-generated content.
Although C2PA deployment faces infrastructure and technical costs, Bima suggested Komdigi create an implementation roadmap and supportive legal framework.
“Komdigi can be more effective by planning and facilitating C2PA adoption so public digital security is better protected,” he said.
Bima also offered practical advice to the public for protecting themselves from deepfakes and AI misuse of facial images.
“Consider a Personal Photo Hygiene strategy. Be cautious about uploading too many high-resolution face photos to public social media,” he said, adding that a simple yet crucial step is locking down your social accounts.
“Consider setting your accounts to private so only people you know can see your photos,” he advised. (phj)