Indonesian e-commerce unicorn Tokopedia announced a collaboration with the country’s largest university, Universitas Indonesia (UI), to launch the Tokopedia-UI AI Center of Excellence.
This will be the first artificial intelligence (AI) development center in Indonesia that utilizes deep learning supercomputer technology developed by American tech company Nvidia. According to Tokopedia, the initiative is meant to encourage academics and researchers to use technology, especially AI, to create real-life solutions for problems that occur not only in industries that support e-commerce—like logistics, risk management, cybersecurity, and payments—but also those that are present in Indonesian society.
“At Tokopedia, we believe that technology should be an enabler that empowers the people, rather than a disruptor,” said CEO William Tanuwijaya in an official statement. “We are announcing our collaboration with Universitas Indonesia in bridging academicians and researchers, together with every stakeholder, to drive the research and development of AI for the empowerment and advancement of Indonesia,” he continued.
Through the partnership, researchers will also able to examine various ways to help traders produce, refine, and provide services, and create better products by using Nvidia’s supercomputer technology. The Tokopedia-UI AI Center of Excellence is powered by the Nvidia DGX-1 server, which is equipped with the company’s latest Tesla V100 graphics processing units.
Nvidia’s Southeast Asia regional director Ettikan Karuppiah said that this installation of DGX-1 supercomputers in Indonesia is expected to drive e-commerce growth in the country. Moreover, Nvidia will also be sharing their technical knowledge and work closely with the center to achieve its goals.
The Indonesian government welcomes this addition to the country’s AI research capabilities, with the minister of research, technology, and higher education, Mohamad Nasir, endorsing its launch. This facility is expected to be a testing ground for AI professionals in the country and will boost the university’s capability of producing globally competitive personnel in the field of AI research and development.
Editor: Brady Ng