Why did Indonesia choose Sam Altman for its golden visa?

Photo credit: Y Combinator

OpenAI founder Sam Altman became the first person to receive Indonesia’s golden visa. But which part of his sterling resume – which includes being a former Y Combinator president and an ex-CEO of Reddit – makes him particularly attractive for Indonesia?

It is clear that the Indonesian government needed someone of Altman’s caliber to launch the golden visa with a bang, especially to draw the attention of other high-net-worth individuals.

Giving him the visa was a “big, bold move,” Agung Bezharie, the Jakarta-based partner at Antler, told Tech in Asia.

Indeed, Indonesia recorded a 44.2% jump in foreign direct investment last year, though Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia cautioned that 2023 would be a tougher year.

Of course, AI remains Altman’s big draw. Aldi Hartanto, partner at VC fund Arise, told Tech in Asia that the golden visa shows Altman’s willingness to help Indonesia nurture its AI talent.

Hammam Riza, president of Korika, told CNN Indonesia that while a partnership with Altman is still in the works, one possible program is to develop a GPT-4 large language model for Indonesian as well as Indonesia’s regional languages, such as Javanese and Sundanese.

Korika is a government-linked organization that facilitates AI research and innovation in Indonesia.

Hartanto added that localization is critical to produce more AI engineers, build more use cases on top of OpenAI, as well as align government policies on AI. In addition, he hopes to see OpenAI launch a research center in Indonesia as well as secure developer partnerships with local startups.

That said, it’s probably not realistic for Indonesia to produce a ChatGPT rival anytime soon.

“In Indonesia, AI development will mainly be on the application layer for specific use cases,” said Bezharie. “I cannot foresee further AI angles other than signaling that Indonesia is now more open to foreign investment.”

See also: Malaysia, Indonesia overhyped Elon Musk’s Tesla, Starlink

Meanwhile, Altman’s own interest in the country might have strengthened his case. In June this year, Altman was in Jakarta to speak at an event organized by Korika. But according to Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment, Altman visits the town of Ubud in Bali every year, and he plans on regularly visiting the country in the future.