Global AI Regulation Shifts as US and EU Pursue Divergent Legal Frameworks
Policymakers around the world introduce hundreds of AI initiatives, with the EU pushing for comprehensive risk-based rules while the US focuses on targeted enforcement and investment. Both regions show tentative signs of converging on the concepts of trustworthy AI and consumer protection.
Global policymakers introduce hundreds of artificial intelligence initiatives as legal frameworks rapidly take shape across the world. The OECD identifies 700 AI policy initiatives across 60 countries throughout 2021, signaling a major worldwide push to manage automated technologies.
The European Union drives toward comprehensive regulation by finalizing its Artificial Intelligence Act to explicitly govern high-risk AI systems. In contrast, the United States avoids a single overarching law and instead prioritizes defense and infrastructure investments alongside targeted enforcement actions.
Despite these different approaches, US and European policymakers show tentative signs of convergence by emphasizing risk-based regulation, ethical standards, and trustworthy AI. US regulators like the FTC actively prepare to ramp up enforcement on consumer AI products, while California prepares to issue its own impactful AI regulations by 2023.