Southeast Asian nations under ASEAN are veering towards a business-friendly, flexible approach to AI regulation, contrasting with the European Union’s more stringent, standardized framework.
Key Points
- ASEAN is finalizing a “guide to AI ethics and governance” to be completed by January 2024, which incorporates feedback from major tech companies including Meta, IBM, and Google.
- The guide is voluntary, encouraging companies to consider cultural variances and does not delineate unacceptable risk categories, offering a contrast to the prescriptive and stringent EU AI Act.
- ASEAN nations, hosting over 700 million people with diverse cultures and rules on censorship and misinformation, generally favour policies that allow innovation within broad “guardrails,” mitigating excessive compliance burdens.
- The guide suggests governments assist companies via R&D funding and establishes an ASEAN digital ministers group focusing on AI application, while advising firms to have an AI risk assessment and governance training, without specific mandates.
- Other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea have also indicated a lean towards relaxed AI regulations, undermining the EU’s efforts to establish a globally harmonized AI governance standard.
Key Insight
ASEAN’s approach towards AI regulation significantly diverges from EU’s stringent standards, favoring a more flexible, voluntary guideline that acknowledges regional cultural and legal disparities, thereby positioning itself as a more business-friendly and innovation-conducive environment.
Why This Matters
The disparity in regulatory approaches between ASEAN and the EU not only underlines the divergent philosophies regarding technological governance and innovation across different global regions but also creates a complex panorama for multinational tech companies that must navigate varying, and sometimes conflicting, regulatory landscapes. It illuminates the challenge of creating global standards in technology governance and poses questions about balancing technological innovation against ethical, security, and societal concerns, particularly in regions with diverse cultural and legal frameworks.
