Technological power: the greater the risk, the greater the regulation

By María Fernanda Cobo

Yesterday, August 1, the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act came into force. Regulating the development, commercialization and use of AI systems based on the protection of human beings defines the European position in the face of the geopolitical tension that technological innovation represents for the United States and China, which is torn between the freedom to innovate in Western democracy versus the control to develop in Asian autocracy. 

This tension accelerates AI development with two geostrategic objectives: US globalization and Chinese expansionism. The United States dominates AI development in venture capital and private investment in the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem and the oligopoly of global Big Techs, while China leads in AI patents filed by its private companies, which it calls National Teams, and which it created to challenge U.S. digital hegemony. In terms of national regulation, the United States is advancing federal legislation based on democratic values that guarantee security, transparency and social trust, avoiding falling into over-regulation that would put innovation itself at risk; while China, understanding AI as a national public good, exercises centralized state control. Both countries focus their AI development efforts on strategic sectors such as national security, economic growth and social impact, such as transportation, education and health.