Vietnam

Scope

Effective March 1, 2026, the law applies to Vietnamese authorities, organizations, and individuals, as well as foreign entities engaging in AI-related activities in Vietnam, including the research, development, provision, deployment, and use of AI systems. AI activities only serving national defense, security and cipher activities are not under the scope of this Law.

Key Obligations

Application obligations

The application of AI in sectors shall comply with principles for management of risks in accordance with this Law and relevant laws.
For essential sectors that directly impact human life, health, legitimate rights and interests, or social order and safety, the application of AI shall be managed with stricter risk control in accordance with characteristics of each sector (i.e., Healthcare, Education).
The application of AI in scientific research activities shall comply with research ethics, scientific integrity, and prevent fraud and plagiarism during research and publication of results.

Prohibited activities

Exploit or appropriate AI systems to commit illegal act, or infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals; deceive or manipulate human perception; exploit the vulnerabilities of vulnerable groups to cause harm to themselves or others; creating or disseminating fabricated content that may cause serious damage to national security, social order and safety; obstruct, disable or falsify supervision, intervention and control mechanisms of the human over AI systems as prescribed by laws; conceal information that shall be disclosed, transparent or explained; erase or falsify mandatory information, labels or warnings in AI activities; exploit research, sandbox, evaluation or inspection activities of AI systems to commit acts against the laws.

Classification

AI systems are classified according to the following risk levels: high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk.
Providers shall classify AI systems before putting them into operation. Systems classified as medium-risk or high-risk shall be accompanied with classification dossiers.
For medium-risk or high-risk systems, providers shall notify the classification results to the Ministry of Science and Technology via the single-window website on AI before putting them into operation. Organizations and individuals developing low-risk AI systems are encouraged to disclose basic system information to increase the transparency.
The inspection and supervision shall be conducted according to the risk level of the systems.

Transparency

Providers shall ensure that audio, images and videos generated by AI systems are marked in a machine-readable format as prescribed by the Government.
Deployers are responsible for making notifications when texts, audio, images or videos created or edited by AI systems are provided if such content may cause confusion regarding the authenticity of events or characters, unless prescribed otherwise; Deployers are responsible for ensuring that audio, images or videos created or edited by AI systems to simulate or imitate the appearance, voice of real persons, or reenact actual events are labeled clearly to distinguish them from human-made content; For products that are cinematographic, artistic or creative works, the labeling prescribed in this clause shall be done in a manner that does not hinder the display, presentation or enjoyment of the works.
Providers and deployers shall maintain transparency information as prescribed in this Article throughout the process of providing the systems, products or content to users.

Responsibilities for management and handling of AI incidents

Developers, providers, deployers and users of AI systems are responsible for ensuring the security, reliability; promptly detecting and fixing incidents that may cause harm to people, property or social order, including promptly record, notify incidents and cooperate in the fixing process.
The conformity of high-risk AI systems shall be evaluated in accordance with this Law before being put into operation or when there is a significant change during operation.
Comply with management obligations according to the risk level of the AI systems, including that foreign providers having high-risk AI systems that are provided in Vietnam shall have a legal contact point in Vietnam. In cases where a system is subject to mandatory conformity certification before being put into operation, it must have a commercial presence or an authorized representative in Vietnam.

Vietnam

Scope

Key obligations