Dubbed Sahabat-AI, the model will be able to generate responses in Bahasa Indonesian as well as the myriad of local languages spoken across the archipelago.
Indosat and GoTo will open source the AI, enabling Indonesians to build AI services and applications suitable for local uses, a consideration overlooked by generalised Western models.
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“By creating an AI model that speaks our language and reflects our culture, we empower every Indonesian to harness advanced technology's potential,” said Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO of Indosat. “This initiative is a crucial step towards democratising AI as a tool for growth, innovation, and empowerment across our diverse society.”
Findings from research firm Omdia suggest businesses in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly seeking AI models and services more aligned with local cultures and languages, rather than Western-centric solutions.
Sahabat-AI aims to fill the AI gap for Indonesians, with its developers wanting to create not simply a language but an ecosystem where businesses, research institutions, and government agencies can tap into the localised AI offering.
Supporting Indosat and GoTo is Nvidia, with the team that trained the model — AI Singapore and Tech Mahindra — leveraging its AI Enterprise software and NeMo training platform to enhance its understanding of the local languages.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia appeared for Sahabat-AI’s launch event during Indonesia AI Day, joined by Sinha, Patrick Walujo, CEO of GoTo, and Erick Thohir, the Indonesian Minister of State Owned Enterprises.
“Sahabat-AI launches Indonesia's AI journey and showcases how large language models can be tailored to serve unique linguistic and cultural needs,” Huang said. “Indonesia’s culture of ‘gotong royong,’ or mutual collaboration, demonstrates how industry, researchers and the public sector can come together to help every nation use AI to advance development.”
Upon release, Sahabat-AI will be made available in two sizes: 8 billion and 9 billion parameters, making them fairly small compared to conventional language models, but it means users can power their AI services without having to break the bank to power a large-scale model.
Nvidia will support Indosat as it works to further build out Sahabat-AI’s family of models.
Among the early users include Hippocratic AI, a startup developing safety-focused AI models for the healthcare sector. Hypocrite will incorporate the new Sahabat-AI models into its services for Indonesian residents.
“Our vision for Sahabat-AI is to put the power of AI into the hands of everyone in Indonesia,” said Walujo. “By operating in Bahasa Indonesia, Sahabat-AI addresses critical context and cultural reference gaps left by the global large language models.”
While Sahabat-AI is described as being an open source system, no word was said as to whether the data used to train the model will be published — a key stipulation of the recently published OSI definition for what constitutes a true open source AI system.
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