Barreling Towards “Significant Misalignment”: A Comparative Examination of AI Regulation In The European Union And United States

As artificial intelligence technologies threaten drastic change, governments around the world have implemented different strategies regarding their regulation. Despite the European Union and United States’ strong diplomatic and military alliance, dynamic trade relationship, and broadly aligned commitment to liberal democracy, the two powers have taken drastically different regulatory approaches to AI. In this paper, I conduct a comparative qualitative analysis of the defining characteristics of each government’s AI policies and how their actions reflect different strategies to become a global leader in the AI revolution. In general, the EU emphasizes regulation, while the U.S. emphasizes innovation and military action as means to grow and wield global influence. While the EU takes a heavy-handed approach through comprehensive and binding legislation, aiming to lead the world in laying down AI law, the U.S. has not passed equivalent federal legislation, opting for a hands-off approach and emphasizing investment in innovation to assert dominance. Both governments’ policies suffer from fragmentation along different dimensions. I will consider the possible explanations for why these records differ, including differences in the actors’ 1) fundamental approaches to regulation and strategies for global leadership on AI; 2) regulatory capacities; and 3) legislative agenda-setting, political polarization, and gridlock. Ultimately, considering the EU and U.S. predominance on the global stage, the direction of their strategies and level of cooperation could shape the future of AI.