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

South China Morning PostCenter-RightEN 1 min read 100% complete by Vincent ChowFebruary 10, 2026 at 04:00 PM
Indonesia telco chief warns of ‘digital colonisation’, backs China’s open-source AI

AI Summary

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Vikram Sinha, president director and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, a major Indonesian telecom firm, has warned that "digital colonisation" is a significant threat to middle powers in the artificial intelligence era. He stated that expensive and proprietary AI stacks pose this risk, while China's open-source AI offerings provide better protection for local sovereignty. Sinha emphasized the importance of localization and digital sovereignty, particularly in developing countries like Indonesia. Chinese companies such as Huawei Technologies and Alibaba Cloud are competing with US rivals in Southeast Asia, offering cost-competitive AI services. Sinha joined a panel on China-Indonesia AI cooperation at the South China Morning Post's China Conference: Southeast Asia 2026 in Jakarta. He highlighted the need for customizing models to local conditions, which Chinese open-source models better address.

Keywords

digital colonisation 100% artificial intelligence 90% open-source ai 80% indonesia 70% digital sovereignty 70% proprietary models 60% china 60% southeast asia 50% cloud providers 50% telco 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Neutral
Score: 0.10

Source Transparency

Source
South China Morning Post
Political Lean
Center-Right (0.50)
Far LeftCenterFar Right
Classification Confidence
90%
Geographic Perspective
Indonesia

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis. The political bias score ranges from -1 (far left) to +1 (far right).

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