Thailand opens public consultation on draft AI Act

Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) have opened public consultation on the draft Act on Artificial Intelligence, according to Thai PBS’s Policy Watch. The government aims to bring the country’s first cross-sectoral AI law before the House of Representatives by September 2026.

Rather than regulating all AI uniformly, the draft adopts a risk-based approach, focusing obligations on systems classified as high-risk to rights, safety, or public welfare, while leaving lower-risk applications to operate under general guidance.

The draft would prohibit certain uses outright, including AI-driven unfair discrimination based on large-scale data processing and AI that manipulates decision-making through covert communication techniques, with scope for further prohibited uses to be added by royal decree.

Oversight would be decentralised, with sector regulators – in finance, health and transport, for example – responsible for AI within their own industries, coordinated by a national AI steering committee that would determine which systems count as high-risk.

Developers and deployers of high-risk systems would face expanded duties: providers must ensure systems are secure, transparent and auditable, while deployers, whether government or private, must carry out risk assessments and ongoing monitoring. Government bodies would additionally need to complete an ethical impact assessment before deploying AI in public-facing services, feeding into a central register of state AI use.

On synthetic content, the draft sets out a four-tier transparency regime, requiring AI providers to build in machine-readable detection, users publishing AI-generated content in risk-related contexts to disclose its origin, deployers to manage associated risks, and platforms to detect and label AI-generated material.

The draft also includes data sovereignty provisions and would require foreign AI providers without a Thai office to appoint a local coordinator, with a legal representative required for higher-risk or particularly significant services.

Following consultation, the draft will go to the Council of State for legal review before Cabinet consideration and submission to Parliament.