Thailand’s Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) recently issued two notifications—one for life-insurance companies and another for insurance companies—establishing key criteria and requirements for insurance companies to manage risks relating to IT and cybersecurity. The notifications, entitled Notifications Re: Criteria for the Supervision and Management of Risks Relating to Information Technology for Life/Non-life Insurance Companies B.E. 2563 (2020) came into effect on January 1, 2021, and cover eight major aspects of IT risk management as detailed below. IT Governance Insurance companies are required to monitor and manage IT risks and cyber threats in accordance with the size, characteristics, complexity, and context of their business operations, and each company should have at least one director with knowledge of, or past experience in, the field of information technology. IT Project Management Insurance companies are required to develop a written framework for IT project management, covering at least the commencement, implementation, and control of the project, as well as the project closing and post-project auditing. Companies must also appoint a committee for supervising and monitoring IT projects. IT Security Insurance companies are required to institute a written IT security policy, which must be reviewed at least once a year or upon implementing any significant changes. The policy must be approved by the board of directors, or a relevant subcommittee appointed by the board of directors. In outsourcing IT activities to third-party service providers, or entering into any arrangement that allows business partners to connect to or access the company’s IT system, insurance companies are required to specify their own criteria and procedures for the selection of third-party service providers, enter into a written service agreement and a service level agreement with the third-party provider, and conform with other requirements under the notifications. Insurance companies will also be required to comply with the OIC’s forthcoming

At a meeting on December 21, 2020, the Thai Board of Investment (BOI) approved a series of stimulus packages aimed at encouraging local and foreign investment, as the government seeks to boost Thailand’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional investment incentives, which will be promoted by the BOI in the upcoming year, include a number of sector- and project-specific stimulus measures.   Additional Tax Incentives for Large-Scale Projects Projects in target industries with investment of at least THB 1 billion (approx. USD 33 million) over a 12-month period, starting from the issuance of the BOI promotion certificate, will be entitled to an additional 50% corporate income tax (CIT) deduction for a period of five years, calculated on top of the standard 5–8 year CIT exemptions offered under the normal BOI tax-incentive scheme. To obtain this special tax incentive, eligible projects may apply to the BOI from January 4 to December 30, 2021.   Stimulus Package for Digital Economy and Software Industry Projects that support digital technology adoption, such as software integration, artificial intelligence, machine learning, or big data analytics, may benefit from 50% CIT exemptions on profits generated from their existing BOI projects for an additional three years. Applications for the exemption must be submitted by the end of 2022.   Application Deadline Extensions for Special Economic Zones and Five Southern Provinces Measures relating to special economic zones cover more than 300 investment promotion categories, with both tax and non-tax incentives, including an additional tax incentive for target industries such as textiles, agriculture, home furniture, jewelry, and others. These incentives are available to projects located in the border areas of Thailand (i.e., the 10 special economic zones in the provinces of Chiang Rai, Kanchanaburi, Mukdahan, Nakhon Phanom, Narathiwat, Nong Khai, Sa Kaeo, Songkhla, Tak, and Trat), with the

Amid broader efforts to strengthen the country’s consumer protection laws, Laos issues it’s first legislation to ensure that regulators address consumer protection issues in the telecommunications sector.

John McCarthy, an American computer scientist and inventor, coined the term “artificial intelligence” (AI) in 1956, and is often called the father of artificial intelligence. Now, nearly a half century later, legal professionals recognize that AI is not just a buzzword for novel computer software but, with the ability of computers to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, it holds great potential for technology growth. The term AI followed from research that studied and developed concepts around “thinking machines.” Today, AI is generally accepted as a branch of computer science. It concerns the ability of computers to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. Subsets of AI include machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and neural networking. Existing Use of AI in Legal Research So far, the legal profession’s utilization of AI pales in comparison to other sectors, according to a 2019 management consultancy study by Bain & Company. It found that only about 20 to 25 percent of legal departments embrace AI in at least one area of their work, while 40 percent of finance departments and 54 percent of human resources departments do so. A survey in 2017 (on research not associated with AI) by the American Bar Association found that attorneys spend, on average, 16.3 percent of their working hours conducting legal research. Despite the transition of legal research within the last century from using traditional hardcopy materials to computerized databases, to the adoption of online research within the past few decades, little has changed in the time investment, the survey said. With clients pressuring lawyers to reduce costs, leveraging AI to conduct legal research can save time and money. A 2018 article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology  exemplified this point in referencing a bankruptcy lawyer who spent 10 hours searching for a