Comparative Study of AI Regulations in Asia: Can the Philippines Learn from its Asian Neighbors?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has profoundly changed and will continue to change our lives. AI is being applied in more and more fields and scenarios such as autonomous driving, medical care, media, finance, industrial robots, and internet services. The widespread application of AI and its deep integration with the economy and society have improved efficiency and produced benefits (Huang, Zhang, Mao & Yao, 2023). Concerns about AI's rapid evolution and potential dangers have led to the development of regulations in various regions. For instance, the EU has introduced the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the AI Act. The US has put forward the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights. In the case of the Philippines, its National AI Strategy Roadmap prioritizes innovation and ethical practices, addressing challenges like data quality and privacy (Alfiani & Santiago, 2024). AI-based research initiatives in Philippine agencies are anchored on the vision of improving and achieving better healthcare, economic growth, clean energy, smart cities, smart farming and mitigating climate change (Rosales et al, 2020).It appears that, across the globe, the primary considerations in formulating AI regulations include ethical principles, data privacy, algorithmic bias, transparency, explainability, and international collaboration. While the regulatory approaches differ across regions, they share a common goal: ensuring that AI benefits society while minimizing negative impacts (Alfiani & Santiago, 2024). AI regulations should typically be derived from AI ethics guidelines and principles, which may be summarized as follows: transparency, justice and fairness, responsibility and accountability, nonmaleficence, and privacy (Huang et al., 2023). In Asia, the ramifications of these ethical principles vary from country to country, depending on certain cultural and historical influences, e.g., Pancasila in Indonesia (the foundational state ideology), or the principle of fazhi or yifazhiguo in China ("government based on law" or "governing the country according to law?), and so on (Alfiani & Santiago, 2024). This paper reviews Philippine publications and conference papers on AI Regulations and Laws, and makes recommendations for a robust AI Law in the Philippines, having analyzed and learned from the worthwhile aspects of AI regulations in its Asian neighbors.