JAKARTA (ANN/JAKARTA POST) – Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, a publicly listed telco firm, is set to introduce a large language model (LLM) named Garuda for the Indonesian language in July, as announced by the company on Tuesday. This model will enable artificial intelligence technology, like ChatGPT, to comprehend interactions in the local language, catering to a broader audience.
The CEO of Indosat, Vikram Sinha, emphasised the potential benefits of having AI communication in Indonesian during a press briefing. The development of Garuda is the result of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Indosat and Indian developer Tech Mahindra during the Mobile World Congress in February. The model will be based on the principles of LLM Project Indus, designed for conversations in Indic languages and dialects.
Furthermore, Indosat revealed its collaboration with tech giant NVIDIA to access their technology and develop local AI infrastructure in Indonesia. This initiative will include offering AI cloud services to public and private enterprises through its subsidiary Lintasarta, with the arrival of the first batch of 1,000 NVIDIA GPUs scheduled for July.
Sinha also addressed the company’s financial performance, citing a significant increase in revenue and net profit in the first quarter of the year, along with a growth in its customer base.
Indosat recorded the fastest-growing average revenue per user (ARPU) among cellular customers compared to other telcos in the country.
In response to the recent inauguration of Starlink, a satellite-based internet provider by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in Indonesia, Sinha expressed a positive outlook. He viewed Starlink and other low-orbit satellite firms not as competitors but as potential collaborators, particularly in providing internet connectivity to remote islands in Indonesia and supporting various industries like fisheries and defence.
