In partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, we are working on a collection of essays on AI ethics and governance in Asia. The volume brings together 8 scholars from Asia to reflect on the following themes:

1. Discursive imaginaries of AI governance: The book seeks to critically examine the governance of AI across countries in Asia in order to uncover underlying goals, values and assumptions.We would like to understand how state and non-state actors have sought toposition themselves in the race for AI dominance. This would involve unpacking the rhetorical stances taken by influential actors in the AI ecosystem in orderto trace how policy approaches are shaped by the outcomes these actors envision for themselves.

2. Regulatory landscape in relation to AI: A number of different approaches and policy instruments have emerged to govern AI - from a risk-based approach to human rights to technical standards.These approaches may leverage legacy legal and policy instruments and institutions, take up instruments that were previously sparsely used, or create them anew. The book seeks to critically examine emerging regulatory approachesand institutional arrangements in Asia to govern AI, and their likely impacts.

3. Regional pressures shaping domestic AI governance landscapes: States do not make policies in a vacuum and are subject to regional and bilateral pressures in shaping AI governance and in pursuing policy pathways. Through this book, we would like tomake these influences visible.

4. Counter-narratives to the race for AI development and deployment: We would like to draw-out (and possibly draw connections between) the anxieties expressed by civil society and citizens with regard to the development and deployment of AI by both state and non-state actors. Studying local disobediences can also be indicative of transformative events that shape people’s acceptance of AI interventions or processes and institutions actors adopt in order to garner citizen trust.

We also hosted an authors workshop earlier this year, to share our working drafts and get feedback. The very talented Tanvi Sharma helped us with some graphic note-taking - her illustrations below provide a sneak peak into the chapters and contributors for this volume.