Indonesia to develop new DeepSeek

Indonesia is pushing ahead with the development of a low-cost, open-source large language model (LLM), seen as a local version of China's DeepSeek chatbot, in its bid to become a tech powerhouse in Southeast Asia.

Luhut Pandjaitan, a senior economic advisor of President Prabowo Subianto, told the Indonesia Economic Summit held recently in Jakarta that they have set up a team to establish their own DeepSeek.

The former minister said the unnamed chatbot, which will be presented to President Prabowo early next month, could respond in Indonesian and English. Luhut did not reveal how much was spent on the app, only saying that it was not costly.

Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Arsjad Rasjid called on the private sector to join forces with the government to help spur AI innovation.

Indonesia is drafting rules on AI and considers DeepSeek an alternative in the digital ecosystem. Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria said the chatbot would be assessed before any decision on whether to ban it.

According to last year’s e-Conomy SEA report, Southeast Asia’s young, digital-savvy population has a keen interest in AI-powered products while AI-related searches in the region grew 11 times from 2020 to 2024.

The fast-developing industry has changed the region’s tech landscape, with Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia attracting more than $30 billion in AI-related investments in the first six months of last year.

The Philippines is nearing the completion of iTanong, a domestic version of ChatGPT that can perform tasks in Tagalog and English, while a Malaysian company has released a Malay-language LLM that aligns with the country’s culture.