New article by Regine Paul explains drivers of EU’s landmark AI Act

On 9 December, the EU Parliament, Commission and Council have struck a deal on how to regulate artificial intelligence, including foundation models à la GPT in the future. In her new open access article in Regulation & Governance, Regine Paul, Professor at the Department of Government, explains the drivers behind the EU’s landmark AI regulation.

Based on qualitative-interpretivist analysis of a full sample of policy documents and interviews with policy experts with the EU Commission and the AI High Level Expert Group, the article deconstructs how the risk heuristic has been used to differentiate the regulatory sphere discursively and in terms of regulatory structure. It explains such risk-based structuration as part of the EU’s attempts to create a (more) competitive European common AI market against the U.S. and China. The piece contributes to scholarship on the European political economy, the (performative) politics of tech regulation, and risk-based regulation. Regine also hosts a network on critical AI policy & regulation studies here.