When we started this project in June 2025, concerns, questions, and critical reporting surrounding the current trajectory of AI development had been growing elsewhere in the world, while discourse in Indonesia was still primarily led by the overtly enthusiastic government officials. On social media, local tech professionals and CEOs were happy to disseminate the gospels of Silicon Valley tech leaders. The Indonesian government had granted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a special “golden visa” recognizing his vision of the future as highly important. A 2024 study done by Rio Tuasikal—one of the journalists in this project—showed that private sector and government quotes dominated 70% of AI media coverage in Indonesia. About 60% of the articles relied on a single source. As a nonprofit journalism organization, we depend on your support to fund more than 170 reporting projects every year on critical global and local issues. Donate any amount today to become a Pulitzer Center Champion and receive exclusive benefits! NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang was allowed to talk on a popular media channel about how AI was “almost like an actual person”: a very knowledgeable tutor, doctor, or consultant that can “democratize knowledge,” The media interview with Jensen did not contain any challenging questions; or at the very least, deeper inquiries into the nuts and bolts of the AI systems and the imagined future itself. Therefore, the main goal for our project was to directly respond to the hype and claims surrounding AI permeating the public discourse with very little alternative perspectives. Through our choice of publishing outlets and events to promote the reporting, we targeted Indonesian well-educated urban populations and youth—demographics that possess the social and cultural power to influence decision makers in both public and private sectors. Part I: Labor We wrote several stories on how AI was reshaping white-collar jobs