AI and Competition in ASEAN: Trailblazers and Path-takers

ICLE convened a half-day, Chatham House Rule roundtable in Singapore bringing together senior competition officials from Southeast Asia and Taiwan, regional lawyers and economists, academic researchers, and policy leaders from technology companies. The discussion examined how competition policy should respond to AI across its many commercial forms, from chips and cloud infrastructure to foundation models, business applications, and distribution. Topics included the challenges related to defining relevant markets in AI, entry and possible bottlenecks, strategic partnerships and vertical relationships, the technical capacity of competition agencies, and the respective roles of competition and consumer protection law. The roundtable also considered lessons from digital market regulation in Europe and elsewhere, as well as the effects of export controls, industrial policy, data governance, infrastructure constraints, and geopolitics on AI investment and competition in ASEAN.