Member-only story
This Is How The EU Is Regulating The Heck Out Of Everything And Why It Needs To Stop
Regulation is the European Union’s favorite tool, its signature move. If there’s an issue — be it artificial intelligence, data privacy, or competition in digital markets — Brussels’ instinct is to draft another law. The EU sees itself as the world’s regulatory leader, setting the gold standard for ethical governance. But what if that leadership is just a polite way of saying “standing still while the rest of the world surges ahead”?
Across the Atlantic, the United States operates on a vastly different philosophy: regulate after innovation, not before. This approach has fueled Silicon Valley’s dominance, allowing American companies to scale quickly and establish monopolies before lawmakers even understand what they’re doing. While the EU debates the ethical implications of generative AI, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are deploying new models at breakneck speed, integrating them into products used by billions. The market cap of Apple alone — over $2.7 trillion — eclipses the combined value of Europe’s entire tech sector. Meanwhile, China, despite its authoritarian governance, has embraced AI and digital platforms as tools of economic…
