In brief
The Expanded ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics — Generative AI (“Guide“) was launched during the fifth ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting on 16-17 January 2025.
The Guide supplements the ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics (2024) (“ASEAN 2024 Guide“), which focuses on traditional AI technologies and includes policy considerations relevant to generative AI (“Gen AI“).
In more detail
The Guide recommends a range of suggested policy actions that ASEAN can consider to foster the responsible adoption of Gen AI, balancing the promotion of its numerous benefits with necessary safety measures.
The Guide provides guidance on six Gen AI risks identified in the ASEAN 2024 Guide: mistakes and anthropomorphism; factually inaccurate responses and disinformation; deepfakes, impersonation, fraudulent and malicious activities; infringement of intellectual property rights; privacy and confidentiality; and the propagation of embedded biases.
It also defines a range of policy recommendations for ASEAN to promote the responsible use of Gen AI while addressing the identified risks. The nine policy recommendations are generally similar to those set out in Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the AI Verify Foundation Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI. For more details, you may refer to our previous client alerts from January 2024 and June 2024.
The Guide then illustrates the implementation of its policy recommendations with four use cases across ASEAN nations.
Key takeaways
The Guide is a useful resource as it sets out a recommended approach for AI governance. To foster a trusted ecosystem to safely harnesses the use of Gen AI, it is recommended that all stakeholders use the Guide as a reference point and adopt the best practices contained therein.
Businesses can adapt the guide’s useful and practical guidance for their regional deployment of AI and address their specific AI use cases.
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