The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped world economic, legal, and social structures, posing critical questions on how to control its deployment while protecting human rights. This paper studies legal responses to AI in key jurisdictions, the United States, European Union, China, and Canada, and their divergent regulatory philosophies. The EU employs a horizontal, rights-based approach based on ethics, data protection, and the "Brussels effect" that seeks to export its regime to the world. The United States follows a decentralized, market-centred regime combining federal guidance with various state-level experiments. China embraces a dirigiste approach with a focus on government control and data regulation via the PIPL, DSL, and CSL, with AI incorporated into judicial and administration proceedings. Canada, while circumspect, tests “regulatory sandboxes” and disclosure policies by courts to harmonize innovation with openness. Comparative studies show decentralized world governance and dangers of legal incompatibilities, imbalance in ethics, and digital disenfranchisement. The paper suggests the adoption of international standards on transparency, accountability, and fairness in algorithms; increased public-private partnerships; and capacity-building programs to make AI integration unbiased. Finally, the paper concludes that regulation of AI must transcend national borders, creating a consistent legal framework that harmonizes innovation with inherent rights, forestalls abuse, and fosters sustainable digital development. The paper is convinced that proactive, coordinated effort at a world level is the only way that AI can become a force for human progress instead of a dispenser of inequality and control. Keywords: artificial intelligence, regulation, legal frameworks, data protection, digital governance, ethical AI, human rights, accountability, transparency, European Union, United States, China, Canada.
Paper
Full text
Regulating the unregulated-legal reactions to the development of artificial intelligence
Semantic Scholar · 2025
Abstract
The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped world economic, legal, and social structures, posing critical questions on how to control its deployment while protecting human rights. This paper studies legal responses to AI in key jurisdictions, the United States, European Union, China, and Canada, and their divergent regulatory philosophies. The EU employs a horizontal, rights-based approach based on ethics, data protection, and the "Brussels effect" that seeks to export its regime to the world. The United States follows a decentralized, market-centred regime combining federal guidance with various state-level experiments. China embraces a dirigiste approach with a focus on government control and data regulation via the PIPL, DSL, and CSL, with AI incorporated into judicial and administration proceedings. Canada, while circumspect, tests “regulatory sandboxes” and disclosure policies by courts to harmonize innovation with openness. Comparative studies show decentralized world governance and dangers of legal incompatibilities, imbalance in ethics, and digital disenfranchisement. The paper suggests the adoption of international standards on transparency, accountability, and fairness in algorithms; increased public-private partnerships; and capacity-building programs to make AI integration unbiased. Finally, the paper concludes that regulation of AI must transcend national borders, creating a consistent legal framework that harmonizes innovation with inherent rights, forestalls abuse, and fosters sustainable digital development. The paper is convinced that proactive, coordinated effort at a world level is the only way that AI can become a force for human progress instead of a dispenser of inequality and control. Keywords: artificial intelligence, regulation, legal frameworks, data protection, digital governance, ethical AI, human rights, accountability, transparency, European Union, United States, China, Canada.