European Commission tech chief Henna Virkkunen says the United States is ending up with many of the same AI guardrails as Europe, even as the Trump administration urges other countries to avoid the bloc’s sweeping approach to regulation. Speaking to Axios around this week’s G20 innovation summit, Virkkunen said the two sides often address the same safety concerns even though American safeguards are emerging through state laws and court cases rather than a broad federal statute.
When it comes to technologies, the culture in the USA is different, she said, with guardrails often arriving via court cases but covering very similar concerns anyway. Virkkunen said she does not see the transatlantic split as black and white. What matters now, in her telling, is which guardrails frontier AI requires and how governments install them.
Brussels is tightening its own grip on the largest platforms: ChatGPT is officially designated under the Digital Services Act and now faces the strictest transparency and content rules in the law. Virkkunen said the EU needs to simplify its rulebook and make the region easier, simpler and faster for businesses at the same time.
