Enviro News Asia, Jakarta – The rapid advancement of digital technology can be optimized to support rural communities and low-income groups in Indonesia. Even people living in remote, frontier, and underdeveloped regions (3T areas) can now utilize artificial intelligence (AI) technology to improve their welfare.
“This is made possible by the operationalization of internet networks through the Palapa Ring package. As such, each village should now be able to establish an up-to-date data center supported by artificial intelligence (AI) technology,” said Brigadier General (Ret.) Dr. Paulus Prananto, MSc, from the National Development University (UPN) Veteran Jakarta, during a discussion hosted by the Center for Technology & Innovation Studies (CTIS) held in Jakarta on Wednesday (April 23). The discussion carried the theme CTIS Open Knowledge Repository (CTIS-OKR) for Low-Income Communities.
On the occasion, Paulus Prananto presented thousands of digital books and documents (e-books) across various sectors such as agriculture, marine and fisheries, health, forestry, natural resources, education, research, innovation, and more, which have been stored in a digital repository. These digital books can be utilized for various community activities.
Paulus Prananto explained that the low interest in reading at libraries and reading spaces, due to the lack of available reading materials, can be addressed with digital technology. Nowadays, even high schools, vocational schools, junior high and elementary schools — or even individual households — can collect thousands of up-to-date e-books to read and gain knowledge and technological insight. Language barriers can also be overcome, as AI technology is capable of translating various languages in a matter of seconds.
The development of AI in the digital era enables people from any socioeconomic class to learn science and technology and apply it directly. During the CTIS discussion, Paulus Prananto introduced several AI technologies, namely Perplexity AI and AI Chat as the first, Open Knowledge Map as the second, and Google Notebook as the third. He uses these tools to search, summarize, and provide insights from research reports, which are then developed into a knowledge base.
“I’ve been working on this initiative since 2010 and have produced around 500,000 e-books,” said Prananto, a doctoral alumnus of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, USA. The resulting e-books are easily understood by the public, covering topics such as agriculture, health, forestry, marine affairs, entrepreneurship, education, and more.
Prananto, who is also a retired Brigadier General and AKABRI class of 1970 alumnus, stated that in the digital era where billions of data are spread globally, they can be utilized effectively using software like Perplexity AI.
Perplexity AI is an artificial intelligence platform designed to deliver efficient and in-depth search results. This platform features an interactive context-based search system, which is particularly relevant in literature learning. According to Prananto, not only can the AI tools search and summarize information, but they can also answer questions critically and effectively. For example, they can quickly analyze and summarize a scientific book. “Because users can instantly find new information based on specific contexts and do so interactively,” he explained.
During the CTIS discussion, an interactive test was conducted on four agricultural products—candlenut, porang, cassava, and kratom—using Perplexity AI, AI Chat, Open Knowledge Map, and Google Notebook. The tools provided detailed information down to the village level in Indonesia, including export destination countries, export volumes, added value pricing, as well as the planting techniques and stages for those agricultural products, complete with images and videos. All this information could be accessed instantly through AI.
Prananto hopes that with such deep and critical exploration, users will be able to find information quickly based on specific contexts. “I hope there will be collaboration to further develop this program,” he said.
Dr. Ali Alkatiri from the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs responded immediately, proposing trials in several Shared Production Houses already established by the Ministry across various regions. CTIS Advisory Board member Indroyono Soesilo supported the program, saying it would encourage young people to carry out critical analysis of their respective regions to foster entrepreneurship in villages. He also emphasized the potential for youth to start AI-based startups by leveraging the natural resources available in their own communities.
