Europe's tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, told Axios that the US and EU are arriving at similar AI protections, despite their different approaches. While Europe regulates in advance, the US often relies on court cases and state law to establish guidelines. Virkkunen made this argument at the G20 innovation ministerial, where Washington launched the Carolina Principles, which urge governments not to create new AI rules or regulators.
According to Virkkunen, the differences between the two systems are not as significant as they seem. She pointed out that the US already has rules in place, albeit not at the federal level, with hundreds of state-level regulations. This claim can be tested, and recent developments have done just that. On August 31, the Commission designated ChatGPT as a very large online search engine under the DSA, giving it four months to comply. The next day, it sent requests for information to over 30 AI providers under the AI Act, focusing on safety and copyright concerns.
In the US, comparable rules have emerged through courtroom settlements. Meta, for instance, agreed to block teenagers overnight and cap their daily usage on Instagram and Facebook, as part of a settlement with 51 attorneys general. Virkkunen sees this as an example of convergence between the two systems, although it comes with a price tag of $12.19 billion over ten years. This amount is what European law expects platforms to work towards on their own, highlighting the asymmetry between the two approaches.
The European side is also seeing movement, with Brussels agreeing to thin out the AI Act in May and pushing high-risk obligations to December 2027. This development may be part of why Virkkunen believes the gap between the two systems is small. As the US and EU continue to navigate AI regulations, it's clear that both systems are producing rules, albeit at different speeds.
Este artículo fue escrito con la asistencia de IA.
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