Conversations around AI safety are largely dominated by the United States, Europe, and China, leaving Southeast Asian voices underrepresented in broader global AI governance discourse. Still, countries in this region have made important strides in digital and AI policy, recognizing the opportunities presented by AI while adopting nuanced and pragmatic approaches to AI safety and development.
This report, “AI Safety Governance, The Southeast Asian Way,” outlines recent AI governance developments in 11 Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Recommendations were in part developed through six roundtable discussions organized by AI Safety Asia (AISA), gathering insights from stakeholders ranging from government officials to the private sector, academia, and civil society. These conversations were used to identify regional priority areas for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and national governments over the next five years to develop comprehensive and future-proof approaches to AI safety. National governments can pursue pragmatic and impactful strategies while actively engaging with regional and international partners. To avoid friction between differing national strategies, ASEAN should harmonize approaches across the region and strengthen cooperation around capacity building, research, and risk management. The report also identifies several persistent challenges and gaps in AI policy across the region, such as developing national AI risk management plans.
The Southeast Asian approach to AI governance also provides valuable lessons for other global majority countries crafting AI strategies. Given the incredible diversity of the region, Southeast Asian countries have taken a context-aware approach to AI policy, prioritizing open-source AI development, developing multilingual large language models (LLMs), and designing inclusive AI governance processes. Finally, this report serves as a call to action for countries in the region to address major gaps in policy, to usher in an inclusive, safe, and innovative AI future in Southeast Asia.
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