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Research Methodology

Overview

For each country, we aim to identify:

  1. The ministry/department responsible for AI policy
  2. Named contacts (ministers, secretaries, advisors)
  3. Contact information (official emails, not personal)
  4. Summit participation history
  5. Whether they have a national AI Safety Institute

Research Steps

Step 1: Identify the Lead Ministry

Search patterns:

  • "[Country] Ministry of Technology AI policy"
  • "[Country] Ministry of Digital Affairs"
  • "[Country] Ministry of Economy digital strategy"
  • "[Country] national AI strategy office"

Common ministry names by region:

  • Europe: Ministry of Digital Affairs, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Science
  • Asia: Ministry of Science and ICT (Korea), Ministry of Economy (Japan), MeitY (India)
  • Americas: Varies widely - often split across multiple agencies
  • MENA: Often Ministry of Communications or dedicated digital authority

Step 2: Find Named Contacts

Priority order:

  1. Minister/Secretary (political appointee)
  2. Permanent Secretary/Deputy (senior civil servant)
  3. Director of AI/Digital Policy
  4. Head of AI Safety Institute (if exists)
  5. GPAI national delegate (if findable)

Search patterns:

  • "[Country] [Ministry name] AI policy director"
  • "[Country] AI Safety Summit 2024 delegation"
  • "[Country] GPAI delegate representative"

Step 3: Verify Summit Participation

Check declaration signatory lists:

  • Bletchley 2023: gov.uk declaration page
  • Seoul 2024: Search for "Seoul AI Safety Summit declaration signatories"
  • Paris 2025: Search for "Paris AI Action Summit statement signatories"

Record:

  • signed - Signed the declaration
  • attended - Attended but didn't sign
  • declined - Explicitly declined
  • absent - Did not participate
  • unknown - Can't determine

Step 4: Check for AI Safety Institute

Search: "[Country] AI Safety Institute" OR "[Country] national AI safety"

Known institutes (as of Jan 2026):

  • UK: AI Safety Institute (AISI)
  • US: US AI Safety Institute (USAISI) - under NIST, status uncertain post-Trump
  • Japan: AI Safety Institute Japan
  • Canada: Canadian AI Safety Institute (announced 2024)
  • France: Part of INRIA
  • Singapore: AI Safety workstream under IMDA

Step 5: Find Contact Information

Priority sources (in order):

  1. Official government website contact pages
  2. Ministry press office contacts
  3. Published consultation response addresses
  4. OECD/GPAI listed contacts

Do not use:

  • Personal email addresses
  • LinkedIn scraped data
  • Unofficial sources

Step 6: Document Sources

Every piece of information needs:

  • Source URL
  • Date accessed
  • Confidence level (high/medium/low)

Country File Template

Use data/countries/_template.md - copy and fill in for each country.

Quality Checklist

Before marking a country as "complete":

  • Lead ministry identified with source
  • At least one named contact with title
  • Official contact email (even if generic ministry address)
  • Summit participation for all three summits checked
  • AI Safety Institute status confirmed
  • All sources documented with dates
  • Information less than 12 months old

Handling Edge Cases

No findable contacts

Record what you searched, mark as "needs_escalation" in PROGRESS.md. Some countries genuinely don't have dedicated AI policy structures.

Multiple relevant ministries

List primary ministry first, note others in the country file. Common for larger countries to split AI across tech, economy, and security ministries.

Recent government changes

Note the date of last election/transition. Political appointees change; permanent secretaries usually don't.

Non-GPAI countries with AI activity

Include if they participated in summits (e.g., China, UAE at Bletchley). Use same methodology.

Automation Opportunities

Some data can be partially automated:

  • OECD AI dashboard has structured policy data
  • GPAI member list is stable and published
  • Summit signatory lists are in structured documents

Scripts in /scripts handle these where possible. Manual research fills gaps.