Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and Indonesian tech firm GoTo Gojek Tokopedia said that they have begun work on Sahabat-AI, an open-source large language model (LLM) ecosystem specifically designed for Bahasa Indonesia and other local languages.
Indosat said Sahabat-AI will enable Indonesians to build AI-based services and applications in Bahasa Indonesia and various local languages, which will preserve essential cultural and linguistic nuances and understanding local context, which global AI models don’t support.
“By operating in Bahasa Indonesia, Sahabat-AI addresses critical context and cultural reference gaps left by the global large language models,” said GoTo CEO Patrick Walujo.
The Sahabat-AI model has been trained by AI Singapore and Tech Mahindra using Nvidia’s full-stack AI platform. In its first phase of development, Sahabat-AI will launch with 8-billion and 9-billion parameter LLMs.
Indosat – which signed a collaboration MoU with Nvidia earlier this year – said it will support ongoing development of Sahabat-AI’s family of models using Lintasarta's recently launched GPU Merdeka sovereign AI cloud service, which features Nvidia Hopper-based accelerated computing.
Adoption of Sahabat-AI will focus initially on chatbots, which present the most obvious and immediate use cases for local-language AI models.
For example, Indosat said Sahabat-AI will enable its existing AI chatbot to answer queries in the Indonesian language for various citizen and resident services. That chatbot is also part of a broader citizen services platform that Tech Mahindra and Insodat are developing as part of the Indonesian government’s sovereign AI initiative.
GoTo said it’s adopting and enhancing the Sahabat-AI models to integrate with its AI voice assistant “Dira”, which helps customers book rides, order food deliveries, transfer money and pay bills.
Indosat said it is also collaborating with Accenture to develop applications based on Sahabat-AI for industry-specific use cases such as financial services and energy under a partnership announced in September.
Indosat and GoTo said they plan to develop Sahabat-AI as an open ecosystem comprising research institutes, universities, media organizations, government agencies, and other partners to bring local and international expertise to the project. University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Bandung Institute of Technology, and Bogor Institute of Agriculture are already onboard, as well as media groups Republika and Kompas Group.
Healthcare AI company Hippocratic AI, which has developed a healthcare-focused LLM for digital chatbot agents, will incorporate the new Sahabat-AI models into its services for Indonesia residents.
Indosat president director and CEO Vikram Sinha described Sahabat-AI as a necessary step to make AI more widely accessible to everyone in Indonesia. “By creating an AI model that speaks our language and reflects our culture, we empower every Indonesian to harness advanced technology's potential.”
GoTo’s Walujo added that an ecosystem approach was the only way to fulfil that vision is with the support of others. “This is why we are inviting stakeholders from all sectors to join the development of this important open-source LLM ecosystem as we aim to drive the country forward together.”