NYT: Governments Fall Behind as AI Labs Set Their Own Rules
TL;DR
- The NYT reports AI has produced one of the widest-ever gaps between policymaking and technology, drawing on more than 20 expert interviews.
- The EU's AI Act, passed in 2024, has seen some of its most consequential rules delayed, with staffing constraints hampering enforcement.
- With no US comprehensive AI law and the Trump administration divided on safety, companies like Anthropic and OpenAI are largely self-policing.
The New York Times, drawing on more than 20 interviews with lawmakers, technologists and policy experts, concludes AI has produced one of the widest gaps ever between policymaking and technology.
The symptoms are specific. Laws passed two years ago are having limited effect. Proposed bills to regulate the technology are stalling without a vote. International summits to discuss what to do are being swiftly forgotten. The European Union's AI Act, passed in 2024 and once held up as a regulatory template, has seen "some of its most consequential rules" delayed, with staffing constraints hampering enforcement.
In the United States, no comprehensive AI legislation has passed, and the Trump administration is divided over AI safety. Many smaller countries are waiting for the two leading A.I. nations, the United States and China, to show their hand before writing their own rules.
What that leaves, in the Times' phrasing, is a policy vacuum. "AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI" are largely left to police themselves. The paper attributes the paralysis to a mix of "national politics, limited technical know-how, geopolitical divisions, and a reluctance to fall behind in a race that could shape economic power and national security for decades."
Two of the analysts in our Who's Who index flagged it the day it ran.
Shared on Bluesky by 2 AI experts
Originally reported by nytimes.com
Read the original article →Original headline: As A.I. Accelerates, Governments Are Increasingly Being Left Behind