Indonesia may become Southeast Asia’s first country to add AI rules to copyright law amid global debates<\/p>\n
A worker walks on the roof of Indonesian Parliament Building in Jakarta, Indonesia, December 5, 2022. REUTERS <\/p>\n
Indonesia is preparing sweeping changes to its copyright law, \u200bincluding granting copyright privileges to people who use artificial intelligence to help them generate content, a draft bill reviewed by Reuters showed, setting up a \u200cpotential showdown between the government and major tech platforms.<\/p>\n
If passed, Indonesia could become the first country in Southeast Asia to incorporate AI in its copyright law, as governments globally grapple with the impact of the technology on copyright rules, including the use of work created by humans to train AI models.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear when the bill, which was an initiative of parliament and given to the \u200bgovernment for its input, would be passed into law.<\/p>\n
Hermansyah Siregar, an Indonesian law ministry official overseeing intellectual property, confirmed the authenticity of the draft bill \u200band told Reuters it would mark the first explicit recognition of AI in Indonesia’s copyright law.<\/p>\n
“The development of generative AI has disrupted \u2060the copyright framework,” Siregar said. “If unregulated, it could kill human creation.”<\/p>\n
Fair-use provisions <\/strong><\/p>\n The previously unreported AI-specific clauses of the bill include banning the use of AI to imitate a \u200bcreator’s “distinctive style” and mandating disclosure on AI use in content.<\/p>\n The bill also requires tech platforms to pay compensation for aggregating, republishing or link-previewing news content, as well as using it for \u200bAI training. The compensation would go to state-supervised collective management organisations, which would distribute the funds to news publishers.<\/p>\n The rules would apply to a variety of content including video games, photography, computer programs, journalism and films.<\/p>\n Read More: <\/strong>China’s Moonshot unveils world’s largest open AI model, closing in on US rivals<\/a><\/p>\n AI-assisted works would qualify for copyright protection only if they met human involvement criteria, while fully AI-generated works would be excluded. The draft did not say how much human involvement was needed to qualify for \u200bprotection.<\/p>\n The use of copyrighted works to train AI models would also be subject to fair-use provisions or licensing agreements, the draft said.<\/p>\n Ari Juliano Gema, an IP and \u200bentertainment lawyer, said Indonesia’s bill might trigger concern among tech companies as it appeared to conflate commercial use of AI with its use for research.<\/p>\n Tech giants such as Google , which issued a statement \u200clast month \u2060criticising the copyright overhaul, could face sanctions if they do not comply with the bill’s provisions, including having their local business permits revoked.<\/p>\n “Rigid, overbroad mandates, however, would harm local creators, slow innovation, and leave Indonesia as an international outlier, ultimately discouraging the investment needed to drive its digital future,” Google said in its statement, adding it would engage with the government on the bill.<\/p>\n Meta and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the proposals. Meta’s Instagram and Facebook platforms are popular among Indonesians.<\/p>\n Siregar said AI regulation was \u200ba global issue, citing an ongoing court<\/a> case led \u200bby the New York Times<\/a>, one of \u2060many brought by copyright owners against tech companies for alleged misuse of their material to train AI systems.<\/p>\n The draft was not final and the government was seeking further input, Siregar added.<\/p>\n Indonesia\u2019s AI push <\/strong><\/p>\n Indonesia’s proposals come as Southeast Asia’s largest economy pushes for the wider adoption \u200bof AI and as the government moves to embed AI<\/a> in key programmes.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Indonesia was among 29 countries that signed an \u200bagreement in Shanghai to establish an \u2060intergovernmental body China says will promote cooperation and global governance of AI.<\/p>\n China’s President Xi Jinping on Friday outlined a vision for a new global AI order<\/a> in which China would share its open-source AI technology and expertise with countries across the developing world.<\/p>\n Xi also called for AI systems to remain under human control and urged countries to establish early-warning and emergency-response mechanisms to \u2060manage AI \u200brisks, stressing the importance of human oversight and control.<\/p>\n Indonesia’s AI disclosure requirements mirror transparency rules emerging elsewhere.<\/p>\n