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Article: Indonesia telco chief warns of ‘digital colonisation’, backs China’s open-source AI

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5 / 10

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Indonesian telecommunications executives have warned of "digital colonisation" and stressed the importance of localisation and digital sovereignty in AI adoption. This emphasis comes as major Chinese AI cloud providers, like Huawei and Alibaba Cloud, seek to compete with U.S. rivals in fast-growing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia.

Chinese companies are promoting their open-source AI models as being better suited for customization to local conditions compared to closed-source alternatives. The remarks were made during a panel on China-Indonesia AI cooperation at a conference in Jakarta.

The main topics covered are digital sovereignty, AI localisation, and the competition between Chinese and U.S. tech firms in Southeast Asia's AI market.

Original URL

https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3343091/indonesia-telco-chief-warns-digital-colonisation-backs-chinas-open-source-ai?utm_source=rss_feed

Source Feed

Big Tech - South China Morning Post

Published Date

2026-02-10 15:00

Fetched Date

2026-03-04 14:30

Processed Date

2026-03-04 15:19

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Present

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Not Clustered

Raw Extracted Content

Indonesia telco chief warns of ‘digital colonisation’, backs China’s open-source AI
Indonesian executives stress that localisation and sovereignty are key to AI adoption in the fast-growing Southeast Asian market
The emphasis on localisation and digital sovereignty comes as major Chinese AI cloud providers look to compete with US rivals in fast-growing Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia.
Sinha’s remarks were delivered on Tuesday at the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026 in Jakarta, where he joined a panel on China-Indonesia AI cooperation alongside executives from Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud is the AI and cloud computing unit of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the SCMP.
While leading closed-source AI companies such as OpenAI also offer sovereign AI solutions to countries around the world, Chinese companies have pitched their open models as better suited for customising models to local conditions.