Muronets Vsevolod Sergeevich – Student of the joined master’s-Ph.D. programme, Ph.D. School of Political Science, HSE University Mironyuk Mikhail Grigorievich – Ph.D. in Political Science, Associate Professor, School of Politics and Governance, Faculty of Social Sciences, HSE University
The development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can be considered one of the main areas of rivalry between the USA and China. But it is still unclear what strategy the EU will pursue in this race in the new electoral cycle that began in the mid-2020s. On the one hand, in relation to AI, the EU follows the logic of «Brussels effect» and «regulatory competition» (an example is the Artificial Intelligence Act adopted by the EU in 2024), suggesting the EU’s intention to compete with the US and China (whose efforts are aimed at creating the most functional rather than safe AI); on the other hand, the effectiveness of Brussels’ strategy is questionable given the EU’s current lag in the field of AI technologies. The article examines the question of what position the EU currently takes regarding AI developments in the US and speculates on whether the EU’s lag behind the US in the race for advanced AI technology should be seen as a counterargument to the «regulatory competition» strategy and as evidence that the EU’s strategy will be revised. The EU does indeed compete with the US following the logic of «Brussels effect», but the authors believe that the EU’s lag in the field of AI does not affect the potential effectiveness of «regulatory competition», since, firstly, this strategy is well aligned with the EU’s general strategy for conducting international policy, and, secondly, «Brussels effect» will be able to bear fruit only after the issue of AI regulation becomes more acute (for example, precedents of tragic events caused by AI malfunctions or misuse will emerge).
EU, USA, China, artificial intelligence, arms race, regulation, «Brussels effect».
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