More than 60 nations gathered in Paris this week for an AI summit that was meant to bring world powers together to set a global agenda on the rapidly developing technology. Instead, it showed that some are diverging sharply.
Over the last several years, the European Union has pursued aggressive regulation of Big Tech, investigating major American companies like Google and Apple and passing several laws that facilitate closer oversight of their activities. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made tech deregulation a central part of its agenda, promising to remove red tape that the industry says is stifling to innovation.
So when dozens of countries including Canada, China, Australia and France signed a document promising an accessible and inclusive approach to AI development, the U.S. opted not to — but so did the U.K., which raised eyebrows among attendees and in the media.
“What we’re seeing here is this tension …