Indonesia decides the best food safety inspector is a server rack

Indonesia thinks it can fix food poisoning with a chatbot. The Indonesian Makan Bergizi Gratis (Free Nutritious meals, or MBG) program is reportedly set to adopt artificial intelligence into its systems.^[1]

The program wants to use it to automate tasks like localizing menu designs and monitoring kitchen hygiene.^[2] The latter of which they probably need, given the number of food poisoning cases that have marred the program since its inception.^[1] That is the official context for the software upgrade. When the physical kitchens are making people sick, the logical next step is to install a robust digital monitoring layer. A dirty stove is a real-world problem. A server rack is a clean, theoretical problem. You cannot easily serve a subpoena to a software deployment, and a cloud-based hygiene monitor never needs to take a lunch break or wash its hands.

Still, the great thing about artificial intelligence is that they aren’t human, and so require allegedly zero bribes to put to work.^[3] That is a genuinely compelling efficiency metric for a public procurement ecosystem. Removing the human element removes the human temptation. A large language model does not have a brother-in-law who runs a catering company, and it certainly does not need an unmarked envelope to approve a shipment of expired chicken. Theoretically, the integration of a chatbot into the public food supply is the ultimate anti-corruption tool. But watch them defy that anyway. Humans are incredibly resourceful when administrative barriers are involved, and a determined procurement officer will likely figure out how to offer a generous bribe to a vendor just to slightly alter the weights of the neural network.

This adoption is seemingly part of a larger move by the Indonesian government to adopt AI in general, with a presidential decree awaiting a signature from the president.^[4] A presidential decree is a fine way to declare that the future has arrived. It commands the tide to turn back, and it ensures that everyone is officially ready for a technological leap, whether the cables are laid or not.

But analysts say the country may not be ready just yet, given a lack of digital infrastructure and AI skills in the workforce.^[5] Infrastructure is distressingly physical. It requires cables in the ground, reliable electricity, and people who know how to troubleshoot the routers when they inevitably fail. You cannot decree a data center into existence, and you cannot simply update the firmware on a kitchen to make it accept a fiber optic connection. The analysts are concerned about the gap between the decree and the dirt. The software is ready, but the soil it is being planted in might not be tilled.

To be fair, the menu localization aspect of the AI plan makes perfect administrative sense. Designing a meal plan that satisfies both the nutritional requirements of the state and the local tastes of a specific province is a complex logistical puzzle. An algorithm can sort through regional recipes, calculate the exact caloric output, and generate a weekly menu in seconds. The chatbot can tell you that a traditional dish from one region contains sufficient protein, provided you add two extra grams of a local legume. It can optimize a budget down to the last rupiah. What it cannot do, however, is physically verify that the legume actually made it into the pot, or that the cook did not leave it out in the sun for six hours before boiling it.

So will this be a tech revolution for the program, or just another blunder?^[6] Perhaps it will be the local equivalent of Microsoft Copilot.^[7] The true equivalent would be an AI that confidently hallucinates a menu, invents a traditional dish that does not exist, and optimizes the procurement of ingredients that the local market does not stock. The chatbot would assure the ministry that the food is perfectly safe, because it read a recipe online that said it was, and the algorithm trusts the recipe. You would just have to trust the algorithm that trusts the recipe.

Make of that what you will.