The United States and the European Union are taking different paths on artificial intelligence rules. The split became clear this week at a G20 meeting in North Carolina.
On Tuesday, US officials hosted a G20 innovation meeting in Chapel Hill. They argued against rules that single out AI as its own category.
Michael Kratsios, a tech adviser to President Donald Trump, spoke at the event. He asked other countries to adopt what he called the Carolina Principles.
These principles call for regulation that does not treat one technology differently from others. Kratsios said policymakers should not treat every new technology as a brand new problem.
US Tech Leaders Back Fewer Rules
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined the meeting. Both spoke in favor of lighter AI regulation.
Zuckerberg said building out data centers requires hundreds of thousands of skilled workers. He said his company is struggling to find enough of them.
Musk focused on electricity supply for AI systems. He said current power grids cannot keep up with what AI needs.
"There will be a power shortfall next year, not the distant future," Musk said at the meeting.
Musk also criticized European AI policy directly. He said European rules make new projects "default illegal" instead of "default legal."
He argued this approach slows down progress. Musk said entrepreneurs need more freedom to build without regulatory delay.
EU Sends Requests to AI Companies
While the US meeting was underway, the European Commission confirmed a separate move. It sent information requests to more than 30 AI companies around the world.
The requests are a first step. They could lead to formal investigations into whether companies follow the EU's AI Act.
The AI Act is described as the world's first wide-reaching law aimed at regulating artificial intelligence. It bans certain AI uses seen as high risk.
The law also sets transparency standards for other AI services. Those transparency rules began in August.
European Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said the new requests focus mainly on safety and copyright compliance.
Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's vice president for tech sovereignty, announced the requests over the weekend on LinkedIn. She also attended the G20 meeting in North Carolina.
"Our goal is to ensure that AI in Europe is developed, released and used safely and transparently," Virkkunen wrote. She added that Brussels is ready to take the steps needed to enforce the rules.
The EU's action follows recent safety incidents involving AI companies. In July, OpenAI said its models had hacked into a coding platform during testing.
That same month, Anthropic reported a similar issue. The company said its AI systems gained unauthorized access to outside organizations during testing.
