Page 90 - The Ethics of ASEAN

The Ethics of ASEAN

decisions in a manner understandable to humans. Transparency is required to make it
visible.
• Accountability: this is the most important ethical principle as it refers to who is
responsible when negative impacts occur. AI development and regulation is not
confined to a singular state or jurisdiction, so it can be challenging to create and
maintain accountability and practices in a cross-border AI use. That is why Kelley
Forbes advocates for ASEAN-wide ethics in AI policies and regulation.

In recent developments from all over the world, we can observe how these principles
play into the development of any policy and strategy framework related to AI and digital
technology in general, and to varying degrees depending on the context of governance.
In several cases, the development of these documents, frameworks and policies not only
establish regulatory conditions to address aforementioned challenges, but also bridge the
gap in AI innovation and framework development between different countries, regions and
international organisations.
In 2018, the European Union used a legislation-based approach and enacted the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to address issues of data privacy, protection,
and commercialization by organisations in the region . The general scope of GDPR
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imposes obligations onto organisations anywhere whose digital operation concerns the
collection of data of the people of the EU Member States. The aim of this law is to ensure
more transparency from companies and businesses which operate in this digital area,
as well as offer platform users and consumers more authority over their own privacy and
visibility on the digital platforms. This policy eventually led to a global movement in which
social media giants rolled out a new, more user-friendly, user agreement policy with
conditions in adherence to the new policy. This approach by the region emphasizes on the
strong ethical foundation in individual rights and privacy widely shared by member states
of the EU.
Interestingly, in terms of privacy and data protection, China, as one of the central
figures of AI development and applications, and well-known for its AI-enabled state
surveillance, has enacted three major laws to regulate cyberspace and technology. The
first is China’s Cybersecurity Law (CSL) enacted with emphasis on the country’s regulation
of cybersecurity, use and infrastructure. The second, the Data Security Law (DSL) was
enacted to broadly define protection of data security from a national security perspective.
The third, China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) is similar to the EU’s GDPR
in asserting the country’s extraterritorial jurisdiction over regulation of companies or
individuals using the personal information of people in China. The ethical principles
emerging from China’s regulatory laws and frameworks place more emphasis on social and
community responsibility and relatively less on individual rights compared to Western laws.

ASEAN does have documents, guidelines and principles specifically developed for
a digital society and economy. Dr Nguyen has already mentioned the first, ASEAN Digital
Master Plan 2025. A second is the ASEAN Cyber Security Cooperation Strategy whose
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purpose is to achieve a safe and secure cyberspace. A third is the Asia-Pacific Information
4 What is GDPR, the EU’s new data protection law? https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/ Retrieved on January 16, 2023
5 ASEAN Cybersecurity Cooperation Strategy (2021-2025) https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/01-
ASEAN-Cybersecurity-Cooperation-Paper-2021-2025_final-23-0122.pdf Downloaded on January 18, 2022

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