From roadmap to regulation: will there be a transatlantic approach to governing artificial intelligence?

The transformative nature and accelerating pace of development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have generated frenzied political debate and urgent calls for regulation. The European Union's (EU) AI Act is one of the earliest, most ambitious, legally binding efforts to regulate high-risk AI systems. This article argues that the thrust of the EU's focus on 'ethical and secure' AI and its first-mover regulatory status have helped to foster transatlantic cooperation on AI governance. To probe this assertion, the article analyzes the ethical underpinnings and key provisions of the AI Act and compares them to policy developments in the United States. The analysis provides preliminary evidence of policy similarities across the Atlantic from an alignment of ethical concerns to a shared understanding of the risks and associated need for common guidelines and standards in the AI sector. Tracing agreements within the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) suggests further cooperation and relative congruence in the EU and US approaches to AI.