Indonesia is set to issue two presidential regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2026, the first legally binding regulations governing AI use under the Prabowo administration. One regulation targets AI ethics, building upon 2023 and 2025 guidelines issued by the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi). The second concerns the national AI roadmap, based on a white paper which was released for public consultation in August 2025.
According to Komdigi Secretary-General Ismail, the two regulations will outline Indonesia’s strategies to establish a sovereign and full-stack AI ecosystem to boost the economy. A focus will be placed on governance and building public trust, ensuring AI development is carried out ethically, transparently and in an accountable manner.
Despite claims that the two regulations are designed to promote safety and accountability, there is little assurance that Indonesia will not use AI technology for state repression. The core problem is that these regulations rely on existing laws for enforcement, which provide no clear guardrails preventing state actors from misusing AI technologies.
For example, article 45A of the 2024 Electronic Information and Transaction Law and section 4 of the 2008 Pornography Act could be used to curb the spread of AI misinformation and deepfake pornography. And articles 20 and 22 of the 2022 Personal Data Protection Law — which state that personal data processing requires explicit consent from data owners — could be invoked to prevent the use of personal data for training AI models, despite making no specific mention of AI.
