From Nasdaq:

Fika Juliana Putri, a 19-year-old shopkeeper in East Jakarta, plans to vote for former special forces commander Gen. Prabowo Subianto in Indonesia’s presidential election because of his cuddly AI avatar. This marks a new era of generative AI-transformed political campaigning in the world’s third-largest democracy. The projected impact of such technology is still unclear, but has been widely adopted among politicians and their teams.

Rules or guidelines for the use of AI tools in politics have yet to be formulated by the Indonesian government, and companies such as OpenAI, whose technology is widely utilized in Indonesian campaigns, are facing challenges in regulating their policies amid election interference concerns. A political consultant in Indonesia has created an app, Pemilu.AI, using OpenAI’s technology to help candidates formulate hyper-localized campaign strategies and speeches tailored to unique constituency needs.

The appointment of generative AI tools for political campaigning in Indonesia is setting a new precedent for AI companies and tech players like Microsoft and Google. Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI, did not comment on engagements with Pemilu.AI, and Google confirmed it had engaged in preliminary testing but emphasized a ban on misinformation.

Prabowo’s impending landslide victory is largely attributed to his innovative campaign utilizing generative AI, bolstering his support among Indonesia’s Gen Z voters, who account for about half of the 205 million eligible voters. Despite his dismissal from the military in the late 1990s amid allegations of human rights abuses, the AI-generated campaign has revived his popularity among young voters, with a January survey showing him receiving more than 60% of the Gen Z vote. This marks a new era for election campaigning in Indonesia, and the results could impact political approaches globally.



Read more: INSIGHT-Generative AI faces major test as Indonesia holds largest election since boom