As part of a global initiative to advance responsible and impactful investment in AI, the Project Liberty Institute (PLI) deepened its engagement with Asian investors through a series of high-level meetings and events across Singapore and Japan this October.
Building on the work in 2024 with strategic partners ReframeVenture, Omidyar Network, and ImpactVC, these engagements aimed to broaden the Institute’s ongoing LP and VC processes on responsible AI and data investment—an initiative that has already involved investors with over $6 trillion in capital across Europe and North America.
PLI’s CEO Sheila Warren emphasized “ASEAN, and Southeast Asia more broadly, are an innovation powerhouse—home to extraordinary entrepreneurial energy and forward-looking investors. For decades, the region has been ahead of the curve when it comes to the adoption of frontier technologies, and it is uniquely positioned to help shape an AI era that upholds individual agency and inspires human-centered business models. As such, this is a crucial region for PLI’s mission to recenter humanity in the global digital economy.”
Investing in the AI Revolution
In Singapore, PLI participated in Private Equity International’s Responsible Investment Forum Asia and the Impact Investor Summit Asia (October 21–22). PLI’s Director of Policy, Governance Innovation & Impact, Paul Fehlinger, spoke in the plenary session “Investing Responsibly in the AI Revolution,” alongside Rosalind Bazany (Antler), Fernanda Lima (LeapFrog Investments), and Milena Nikolova (Antares Ventures), moderated by Johannes Lenhard (CEO, ReframeVenture).
During the session, Paul Fehlinger urged investors to distinguish between impact investing “with AI,” using AI as a catalyst to advance social or environmental goals, and impact investing “in AI,” targeting the enabling infrastructure of AI itself, including new protocols and assurance technologies. He emphasized that this foundational layer represents an impact vertical in its own right, a concept he outlined in ImpactAlpha in his article “Investing With AI, Investing In AI: A Dual Lens for Due Diligence and Impact.”
“Investing in AI responsibly is perceived in Asia not as an afterthought, but as managing core material risk,” said Paul Fehlinger. “Investors are excited about the innovation AI unleashes, but increasingly worried about hyper-concentration, liability, dependencies, loss of agency, and the long tail of unintended consequences of AI on societies and markets. I was truly inspired by the discussions on how to impact invest in the AI stack itself—to incorporate by design values such as trust, agency, transparency, and decentralization.”
Resolving the Responsible AI Incentive Gap
In Japan, PLI and ReframeVenture co-hosted the first dedicated meeting of Japanese LPs and VCs on responsible AI investment, hosted by JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) on October 28, titled “Resolving the Responsible AI Incentive Gap,” inspired by a recent article co-authored by Paul Fehlinger and Johannes Lenhard in New Private Markets.
To further strengthen engagement with Japan’s innovation ecosystem, Paul Fehlinger also spoke at the Tokyo AI Hub’s event “Responsible AI: Investor Perspectives,” about the opportunities of investing in a better AI economy and its enabling technologies. He was joining Ken Kaji (Global Brain), Keisuke Natatsuka (B Capital), and Eriko Suzuki (D4V / Deers Capital), moderated by Hannah Leach (Chairwoman, ReframeVenture).
PLI co-organized on October 30 with the AI Governance Association of Japan (AIGA) and ReframeVenture a high-level dialogue titled “Agentic AI, Humanity, Investment, and Governance: From Data Agency to Managerial Decision-Making.”
The session brought together Japanese investors and leading corporations—such as Tokio Marine Holdings, SoftBank, Rakuten, Mitsubishi, or Dataiku—to explore the intersection of data agency, AI governance, investor responsibility, and corporate best practices, with a special focus on the next wave of agentic AI systems.
Across Singapore and Japan, a clear message emerged: responsible and impactful investment in AI is no longer optional. It is increasingly recognized as both a core material risk and a strategic opportunity to shape the future of the AI economy and advance human agency in the digital age.