As our recent report from Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) outlines, Indonesia’s government is seeking to leverage AI to build a stronger economy and a more technologically resilient society. As the second Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nation to publish a national AI strategy, Indonesia is pushing for rapid and comprehensive AI integration in both its public and private sectors, particularly in health services, education and research, and transportation.
Though it has met previously to discuss cyber threats, this was the first time diplomats convened, under China’s Security Council presidency, to discuss how the rapid advancement of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, biotech, and additive manufacturing, along with digital technologies, are changing the landscape of peace and conflict. The United Nations has in recent years expanded its work to ensure the world realizes the benefits of new technologies and mitigates their risks. Secretary-General António Guterres has identified the risks of new technologies as one of the “ four horsemen’ in our midst four looming threats that endanger twenty-first-century progress and imperil twenty-first-century possibilities.” His Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, launched last year, includes a series of proposals to ensure that everyone is connected, respected, and, protected online. He has repeatedly called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons and the need to avoid the w