The AI global order: what place for the European Union?

This chapter looks more closely at the emerging AI global order and its defining characteristics by considering the way in which the EU has positioned itself through its regulatory activism and technological development, using China and the US as comparators. It then assesses the viability of EU plans to transform its values and rules into a 'global rule book' on AI.The second part discusses the prospects and challenges for the EU to recognise China as a 'like minded' partner in the field of AI, shedding light on the conceptual, normative, and policy gaps that still characterise the relationship between EU and China, from the perspective of human rights, algorithmic citizenship, and right to privacy and data protection. The chapter concludes that, despite many similarities related to broad, lofty objectives such as that AI should be 'human-centered', it is clear that current developments in the governance of AI will most likely lead to a severe fragmentation of the AI global order in which the EU might not have the role it is hoping for.