Artificial Intelligence Policies in East Asia: An Overview from the Canadian Perspective provides an overview of policies on artificial intelligence (AI) from three East Asian countries – China, Japan, and South Korea. This new report focuses on government policies, talent management, and ethical, legal, and social implications of AI, tomorrow's leading socioeconomic disruptor.

The report draws implications from East Asia's AI agenda for Canada, and concludes with four broad recommendations meant to direct Canadian stakeholders to more specific areas of focus and action in foreign policy, commercial relations, and people-to-people relations based on the analysis that AI governance will be one of the key underpinnings of geopolitics in the years ahead.

Artificial Intelligence Policies in East Asia is based on field research conducted in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo during the summer of 2018, in which local experts and practitioners were interviewed. That research is complemented by additional interviews and desk research undertaken in Vancouver, Canada.

The research was mainly funded by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s Post-Graduate Research Scholarship program, and part of the project was also supported by Global Affairs Canada’s International Policy Ideas Challenge 2018.