New Report out on AI Governance in Southeast Asia
A report that I wrote in partnership with EngageMedia, "Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Southeast Asia", is published :) It can be downloaded here, or in its official home on EngageMedia's website, where you will also find a video summary.
The introduction:
Discussions on artificial intelligence (AI) governance have grown rapidly in recent years, as governments, corporations, civil society, and multi-stakeholder forums come together to outline values and principles that should underline the ethical development and deployment of AI technologies, as well as mechanisms for regulating and guiding them. Technology governance, as defined by the World Economic Forum, involves ‘making decisions and exercising authority on the development and diffusion of technology’, with mechanisms such as laws and regulations, incentive programs, institutional frameworks, policies and standards, etc. that aim to guide individuals and organisations towards a specific set of outcomes.
While most of these conversations have been based in the Global North, actors within the Global South are also putting forth critical views from where they stand, indicating that current mainstream discussions on AI governance acknowledge key problems in the application of AI, but stops short in critiquing the structural obstacles that hamper developing countries’ efforts to build their own data and information infrastructure for self-determination. Ultimately, conversations about access and participation of developing nations are framed in a passive manner (if they happen at all). It is crucial for actors within Southeast Asia to address existing challenges within the region that impact their ability to reap the benefits of AI on their own terms and manage technology governance in their own contexts.
This report seeks to provide an understanding of AI and its governance from the perspective of civil society in Southeast Asia, in terms of ways to consider the problem and how best to approach policymaking and advocacy. It draws from scholarly thinking, recent reports, and expert interviews to answer the main question: how can civil society participate in AI governance or intervene in other ways to safeguard AI safety and security?
In the near future, I will be interviewed about the study on EngageMedia's Pretty Good Podcast, and there will also be two other articles on geopolitics of AI published later on. Props to the EngageMedia team in doing a great job of pushing all of this out!
My Research and Project pages on this website are woefully outdated, but I've not found the time or energy to update them. Will work on it in a couple of weeks and have everything up :)