Jakarta, INTI - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) is advancing artificial intelligence (AI) research to help preserve Indonesia's regional languages. Through its work in Natural Language Processing (NLP), the agency is developing AI technologies capable of understanding, processing, and translating local languages, supporting both cultural preservation and their integration into digital services.
The initiative was presented by Yuyun, a researcher at BRIN's Research Center for Data and Information Science, during a visit by students from the Information Systems Program at Universitas Sangga Buana YPKP in Bandung on July 2.
According to Yuyun, BRIN's research extends beyond academic objectives by focusing on practical applications that deliver tangible benefits to society.
"Our research is not limited to theoretical outcomes. We aim to ensure that the technologies we develop create real value for the public," Yuyun said.
He explained that Indonesia's regional languages represent a valuable cultural asset and offer significant potential for building more inclusive AI systems. Over the past two to three years, BRIN researchers have developed AI models capable of processing various local languages to support applications such as machine translation, speech recognition, and language-based interactive systems.
One of the biggest challenges, however, is the limited availability of digital language resources. Most regional languages still lack comprehensive digital corpora, making it difficult to train AI models effectively.
"Many regional languages are documented only through dictionaries containing limited vocabulary, while AI systems require large volumes of high-quality data for training," he explained.
To address this challenge, BRIN has adopted a low-resource language approach, enabling AI development using limited datasets. The initiative brings together linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, and information systems researchers in a multidisciplinary collaboration.
Yuyun also noted that the declining use of regional languages among younger generations has further reduced the availability of authentic linguistic data needed for AI development.
Building Digital Language Resources Through Collaboration
To overcome this issue, BRIN researchers are building digital language corpora by collecting dictionaries, local magazines, folklore books, printed documents, and PDF archives. These materials are digitized, extracted, and cleaned before being used to train AI models.
The research team is also conducting fieldwork across Indonesia. One ongoing project focuses on documenting approximately 13 regional languages in Sulawesi through language identification, mapping, and comprehensive documentation.
For machine translation, BRIN fine-tunes pre-trained multilingual language models so they can better understand the unique characteristics of Indonesia's regional languages. This approach enables faster and more efficient development than building AI models from scratch.
"The collected datasets are organized into parallel corpora linking regional languages with Indonesian and English, providing the foundation for model training," Yuyun explained.
The AI technologies being developed are also capable of converting audio and video into text, automatically identifying the language being spoken, translating it into an intermediary language when necessary, and generating translations into the target language, including Indonesia's regional languages.
Through these innovations, BRIN hopes regional languages will not only be preserved as part of Indonesia's cultural heritage but also become an integral component of the country's future digital ecosystem.
Concluding his presentation, Yuyun said the session was designed to provide students with practical insights into how AI research is implemented in real-world settings, rather than focusing solely on theoretical concepts.
Conclusion
BRIN's AI initiative demonstrates how advanced language technologies can play a vital role in preserving Indonesia's rich linguistic heritage while expanding its use in modern digital services. By combining multidisciplinary collaboration, low-resource AI methods, and extensive language documentation, the agency is laying the foundation for more inclusive AI systems that protect cultural diversity and strengthen Indonesia's digital future.
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