On 1 August 2024, the world's first comprehensive EU Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force, aiming to ensure the trustworthy and safe development and use of this emerging and transformative technology. Although the EU is not a leading competitor in the global AI race compared with the United States or China, it has expressed a clear ambition to position itself as an "AI continent", as outlined in the EU AI Continent Action Plan published on 9 April 2025.
Rather than pursuing rapid technological dominance, the EU's strategy is characterized by a gradual and cautious approach to the development and deployment of AI. Central to this regulatory vision is the principle that AI should remain human-centric, serving as "a tool for people, with the ultimate aim of increasing human well-being".
Drawing on policy and content analysis, this paper first maps the EU's regulatory framework governing AI and then addresses the core research question: what distinguishes the EU AI Act and related regulatory instruments from AI governance approaches adopted elsewhere?
This study argues that the EU's approach is distinguished by two interconnected features. First, AI governance is embedded within a broader framework of fundamental rights protection, transforming normative commitments such as human dignity, privacy, transparency, and non-discrimination into legally binding obligations through a risk-based regulatory model. Second, the EU extends its regulatory influence beyond its borders through what Anu Bradford terms the "Brussels Effect", whereby access to the EU market incentivizes global companies to align with EU regulatory standards.
The paper illustrates this argument through the case of Clearview AI, which was sanctioned by several European data protection authorities despite having no physical presence within the EU. The findings suggest that the EU is not only regulating AI within Europe but also shaping emerging global standards of AI governance. By combining rights-based regulation, hard-law instruments, and extraterritorial regulatory capacity, the EU is forging a distinctive European model of AI governance.
