Artificial Intelligence: navigating a fragmented global policy landscape

The launch of ChatGPT in November not only disrupted the tech sector commercially, sparking a wave of competition in generative AI, but also reignited the policy debate over AI governance and regulation. 

Highlighted in this new report, we are seeing three broad areas of focus:

• Renewed momentum behind existing initiatives on AI regulation and principles, with near term compliance implications for businesses across a wide range of sectors. 
   
• New policy agendas focused on generative AI specifically, with contrasting approaches some facilitatory, others interventionist - set to shape its development over the coming years. 
   
• Tensions at an international level between economic competition and regulatory coordination ahead of the AI summit in London at the end of the year. 

These initiatives are set against a backdrop of global fragmentation: deepening competition between the US and China on technology supply chains and AI; the pursuit of open strategic autonomy by the European Union, and; the failure of G7 countries to agree binding mechanisms for global digital governance, most obviously on international data transfers. For companies this implies having to navigate a patchwork of compliance duties, regulatory guidance and new legislation.