AI as Public Good: Analysing the interplay of Private Investments, Public Infrastructure and Public Accountability

Date: Monday, Oct 13

Time: 13:00 - 14:00 (60 mins)

Session Types: Workshop

Governments worldwide are organising public service delivery ‘through and around digital technologies’ (Leonardi & Treem, 2020: 1602). The move towards this digitisation has also meant greater reliance on artificial intelligence over human decision-making systems (Carney, 2020; Gillingham, 2019). Countries are directly collaborating with the private sector to build public-facing AI infrastructure and directly supporting private-owned AI systems in public functions such as automated welfare delivery, and migration governance.

Against this backdrop, the session will explore the emerging policy landscape on Artificial Intelligence across countries in Asia and the broader Global South. As governments begin to articulate their national positions on AI, we observe a growing divergence in how these frameworks are conceptualized and communicated—ranging from “missions” in India, to “strategies” in Indonesia and Vietnam, and “roadmaps” in the Philippines. Despite varying terminology, a shared momentum is visible across the region in actively shaping their own AI governance structures.

The workshop will unpack:

What national AI strategies/policies reveal about government priorities, values, and approaches.
The implications of diverse framing (mission, roadmap, strategy) for national development, digital sovereignty, and state accountability.
How these policies address (or overlook) critical concerns such as public access, data privacy, localization, and the equitable distribution of AI benefits.

The session will bring together AI policy practitioners, researchers, and civil society actors from across Asia to:

Assess the role of public and private actors in shaping AI infrastructures.
Identify collective advocacy opportunities to ensure that AI policy development is for public interest and social justice.

Through this collaborative exploration, the workshop aims to build regional solidarity and shared advocacy strategies.

Moderators/Speakers: Megha Garg, Suruchi Kumari, Varun Ramdas