In recent years, APEC economies have emerged as dynamic markets and leading drivers for technological innovation. Last week, Korea hosted an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit where digitisation and AI took center stage.
The recently published White House AI Action Plan was a critical discussion point among the many policy makers and industry representatives across the summit. The Plan is a bold step to create the right regulatory environment for AI innovation and investment, addressing regulatory barriers and fostering collaboration in a detailed and prescriptive manner.
Seoul is a long way from Europe, but countries within APEC should be cautious about following the EU’s path, where restrictive regulatory frameworks are being introduced and could result in the region being left behind. The next item on the policy agenda for governments in APEC should not be about introducing new regulations, but rather revisiting and revising existing ones to foster AI innovation. A number of legacy regulations, designed for a different era – including on data privacy and infrastructure – still persist in APEC and could limit its economic growth.
Open-Source AI enables innovation
Open-source AI models provide a cost-effective solution for developers, businesses and governments looking to integrate AI into their operations. By eliminating the need for expensive technology solutions, open-source AI reduces barriers to entry, enabling startups and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to compete on a level playing field with larger corporations.
Meta's open source AI models Llama, built in the US, have been downloaded more than 1.2 billion times and are widely adopted by businesses, researchers and developers around the world. Across forums such as APEC, numerous developers, government officials and entrepreneurs have highlighted how they are harnessing Llama within their organisations, to enable innovation, and drive efficiencies and growth. It gives me first hand insights into the unique value of open source AI, and how our investments bring benefits to the region and the world.
Openness isn’t altruism - Meta and other open source AI providers benefit when others test and build on top of their AI thanks to testing, improvements, and innovations.
Transforming Society through AI
Beyond economic advantages, AI-driven solutions are already enhancing productivity and improving efficiency for the benefit of the public good. In healthcare, for example, researchers at Seoul National University, its Hospital, and College of Medicine utilised Meta’s open source computer vision model, Segment Anything (SAM), to improve medical image segmentation for diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning while reducing computational costs.
Open source encourages transparency and accountability in AI development. By allowing researchers, developers, and policymakers to scrutinise and improve AI models, it helps ensure that AI technologies are based on high standards of transparency and accountability. A crucial factor in building public trust in AI systems.
Ensuring Ethical and Inclusive Use of AI
APEC economies have a critical opportunity to collaborate on ethical and regulatory frameworks that guide safe AI usage. This includes adopting shared best practices, risk mitigation strategies, and leveraging transparency tools, such as Meta’s Responsible Use Guide. To help advance this collaboration, Meta partners with policymakers, academia, civil society, and industry to address privacy, fairness, and ethical use. Collaboration will help establish shared standards for openness, safety, and accountability.
Open source AI’s benefits should reach everyone. APEC economies can promote digital inclusion through infrastructure, open access tools, and training beyond urban centers. Developing fairness testing frameworks and inclusive datasets helps reduce bias and improve outcomes. Tools like the Fairness Flow, analyze AI performance across groups, while community-centered models and multilingual support enhance accessibility across diverse APEC societies.
Opportunities for Leveraging Open Source Technologies
AI has the potential to inject trillions of dollars into the global GDP. APEC economies must capitalise on the benefits of open source AI by taking a pro-innovation approach to policy development, similar to that set out in the US AI Action Plan. To stay competitive, Korea and other APEC economies should prioritise access to and use of data for training AI, recognising that quality AI-driven innovation that improves society requires reasonable access and the use of data.
It was clear during my attendance at the Summit that Meta is uniquely positioned to support governments in achieving their goals of bringing cutting-edge AI technologies to these markets. We are committed to supporting this effort by contributing to the APEC region and bringing the benefits of US investment and our innovative products to people and businesses across these countries.
Progress in this space is also shaped by the rhetorical environment that politicians cultivate – one that emphasizes policy encouragement, rather than limitations. It is essential for policymakers to adopt a long-term perspective on AI policy and establish the necessary foundations now to drive transformative technological and economic growth in the region over the next 20 to 30 years. With access to AI led by US technology companies, countries within APEC stand well placed to lead the next wave of AI-powered transformation.
You can find the Korean version of this article here.
