Public Opinion and the Legitimacy of AI Governance: Values, Trust, and Institutional Logics

As the European Union accelerates implementation of the AI Act and broader digital transition initiatives, the global AI governance is undertaking a divergence of regulatory approaches. Understanding how citizens perceive the legitimacy of AI governance becomes increasingly vital. Public attitudes toward AI regulation are shaped not only by concerns about risk, transparency, and fundamental rights, but also by deeper institutional logics and normative expectations about what governments owe their citizens. Building on comparative insights using China, Taiwan, and Cambodia about how political systems embed different values and developmental priorities into AI governance regimes, this study investigates whether similar logics are reflected in policy learning and cooperations and how ASEAN people perceive government’s AI governance. The findings contribute to debates on moving toward inclusive global AI governance and how to take the ASEAN state logic into account to engage in making AI trustworthy and responsible.