Indonesian Media Giants Unite to Strengthen Sahabat-AI with Trusted Journalism

Tempo and Leading Indonesian Media Collaborate to Enhance Sahabat-AI

Four prominent Indonesian media outlets—Tempo, Kompas, Republika, and HukumOnline—have joined forces to strengthen Sahabat-AI, a large language model (LLM) developed domestically. This strategic partnership focuses on enhancing Sahabat-AI’s language proficiency and its understanding of local contexts by integrating verified news content as training data.

Large language models like Sahabat-AI are AI programs trained on vast amounts of text data to comprehend and generate human language. This enables the model to respond accurately to user inquiries, including those posed in regional languages such as Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, and Batak.

Quality Journalism as the Foundation for Better AI

Executives from the participating media outlets expressed strong support for the collaboration. Wahyu Dhyatmika, CEO of Tempo Digital, emphasized that quality journalism—with its rigorous verification and fact-checking—provides reliable data that improves the clarity and accuracy of AI-generated outputs.

"The news we produce undergoes multiple layers of verification, which contributes to the clarity of Sahabat-AI’s responses," Wahyu stated. He also noted that Tempo's unique journalistic style enriches the AI’s language capabilities, setting a new standard for journalism’s role in the AI era.

Andy Budiman, CEO of KG Media (Kompas’ parent company), highlighted the ethical dimension of this collaboration. He pointed out that many AI developments often disregard copyright and credibility, but this partnership exemplifies responsible and ethical AI progress.

"This collaboration offers a positive example amid widespread practices that use media content without permission," Andy said.

AI’s Role in Journalism Transformation

Andi Muhyiddin, Editor-in-Chief of Republika, views Sahabat-AI as a key element in advancing journalism. He stressed that AI should be leveraged strategically to improve reporting quality, speed up information dissemination, and serve the public interest.

"Adapting to AI is not just about embracing new technology but ensuring the media remains relevant, accurate, and maintains integrity in representing public voices," Andi explained.

Legal and Cultural Contexts in AI Development

From a legal standpoint, Arkka Dhiratara, CEO of HukumOnline, underscored the importance of developing an LLM that comprehends Indonesia's legal and cultural complexities. He expressed pride in supporting Sahabat-AI as part of building a locally relevant and sovereign AI ecosystem.

Sahabat-AI: An Indonesian AI Milestone

Developed by GoTo and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), Sahabat-AI represents a significant step in Indonesia’s AI landscape. Launched first at the Indosat Indonesia AI Day forum in November 2024, the model now supports multilingual chat—including regional languages—boosting accessibility across Indonesia.

Recent upgrades have expanded Sahabat-AI’s parameters to 70 billion, enhancing its complexity and accuracy. Users can experience the latest version through sahabat-ai.com or via the GoPay app under the "Citizens' Favorite Services" menu, where advanced reasoning capabilities enable natural language interactions.

Collaborative Development with Broad Partnerships

The growth of Sahabat-AI is a collaborative effort involving media organizations, government agencies, research institutions, and universities such as the University of Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Bandung Institute of Technology, IPB University, Udayana University, and North Sumatra University.

This broad partnership ensures the AI adapts effectively to Indonesia’s cultural and linguistic diversity. Since its initial releases with 8 and 9 billion parameters and over 35,000 downloads, Sahabat-AI has become one of the most popular projects on Hugging Face, an online platform supporting AI development. Open access to Sahabat-AI encourages local innovation and development of AI applications tailored to domestic needs.

Looking Ahead

This collaboration marks a significant step in strengthening Indonesia’s digital sovereignty by enabling independent management of AI technologies. It also sets a precedent for ethical AI development within the media industry and beyond.

Executives and technology leaders interested in AI development, media strategy, and digital governance will find valuable insights in this initiative’s approach to blending trusted journalism with advanced AI capabilities.