The Global AI Race: The US Creates, China Copies, & The EU Regulates

Authored by Stefan Bartl via TheDailyEconomy.org,

Me: “Hey Siri! Write me an essay on artificial intelligence showing how the USA., China and the European Union interact with AI.”

Siri: “Ok! The USA innovates AI, the Chinese replicates AI, and the EU regulates AI.” 

Siri was introduced to the Iphone 4 in 2011 as a digital assistant. Long forgotten in today’s high speed AI models and algorithms, Siri was the slower stepping stone of Artificial Intelligence breakthroughs. Artificial Intelligence advances the technological frontier as we journey forward into the twenty-first century. Indeed, the global landscape for artificial intelligence (AI) is being shaped by three dominant forces: the United States, China, and the European Union. Each of these economic powerhouses has taken a distinct approach to AI. 

Siri was not branded as AI, but rather a digital assistant. Siri told jokes, reported on the weather, and at best could make a phone call. Apple didn’t even invent Siri, rather acquired the firm for $200 million. Yet, this digital assistant was for the longest time the closest representation of artificial intelligence. 

Just four years after Siri’s debut in 2015, Openai was founded by eleven tech pioneers including Elon Musk & Sam Altman. In 2019 Microsoft invested one billion dollars into OpenAI and has since invested 13 billion dollars. Since then ChatGPT has had 4 major overhauls and become a household name with 123 million daily active users. Most recently, OpenAI has been valued at 340 billion dollars.

OpenAI isn’t the only AI firm either. In 2023 Google introduced its AI, Gemini. In that same year, Microsoft launched Copilot and tech titan Elon Musk’s firm xAI released his AI, Grok. Grok is the only AI designed to have witty humor, “an AI assistant with a twist of humor and a dash of rebellion.”

While US AI firms continue their race for dominance, the battle is no longer confined to Silicon Valley. 

The rise of international competitors, particularly from China, has introduced new threats to the American leadership. This became evident when Chinese AI firm DeepSeek shocked the US stock market and AI world.

January 20th, 2025 saw not one, but two inaugurations. As Donald Trump was sworn into office as the 47th President of the USA, Chinese firm DeepSeek entered the AI ring with its model called R1. The foreign firm sent US tech stocks tumbling, as the Nasdaq index fell 3 percent. DeepSeek claims its artificial intelligence only costs roughly $5 million, “Assuming the rental price of the H800 GPU is $2 per GPU hour, our total training costs amount to only $5.576M.” 

How DeepSeek managed to create R1 with this little sum and within two years is perplexing given OpenAI needed millions of dollars and years of preparation.

OpenAI claims DeepSeek stole from them. 

“We are aware of and reviewing indications that DeepSeek may have inappropriately distilled our models, and will share information as we know more. We take aggressive, proactive countermeasures to protect our technology and will continue working closely with the US government to protect the most capable models being built here.” 

Indeed, there is a history of Chinese firms stealing intellectual property from US firms. The Center for Strategic & International Studies indicates, “We found so many instances of reported Chinese cyber espionage – 104 in the last ten years.”

Beyond allegations of intellectual property theft, DeepSeek has also faced international scrutiny. Several nations, including South Korea, Italy, and Taiwan have banned the app citing privacy concerns and the firm’s questionable adherence to data protection laws. In addition to this, DeepSeek responds with blunt ignorance concerning the facts surrounding Tiananmen Square in 1989, Hong Kong’s reincorporation in 2019, and Taiwan’s sovereignty.

In between the US and China lies the European Union.

The EU consists of 27 nations, roughly 450 million people, and is home to 15 percent of the world’s GDP. Their technological contribution to the AI field is zero. In typical EU fashion, instead of competing and investing in AI, the bloc chose regulation, introducing the AI Act in 2023—the same year many US AI firms were founded.

The AI Act was created to limit risk. 

“To ensure safe and trustworthy AI, the AI Act puts in place rules for providers of such models. This includes transparency and copyright-related rules. For models that may carry systemic risks, providers should assess and mitigate these risks.”

Instead of focusing on the future, the EU prioritizes saving the planet’s priorities by limiting plastic consumption. This is not a new approach. During the age of the internet, the EU was trying to figure out how to regulate the curvature and quality of bananas in 1994. 

By prioritizing risk limitation over market-driven growth, the EU risks further widening the economic gap between itself and the US. The consequences of ignoring economic growth have already begun to materialize. The European Center for International Political Economy writes, “The ranking of GDP per capita in 14 EU member states, which together represented 89 percent of EU GDP, was lower in 2021 than in 2000.” Moreover ECIPE claims, “the prosperity gap between the average American and European in 2035 will be as big as between the average European and Indian today.” Fighting the future by enacting AI laws before even having an AI firm isn’t progress but regression.

The willingness to take risks and embrace new markets has long been a defining trait of American innovation. Just as Google, OpenAI, and xAI have shaped the modern AI industry, history has shown that bold entrepreneurs can redefine entire industries. This same dynamic played out when the Wright Brothers pioneered flight in 1903 or when atomic energy was first applied in 1951. Today the US makes up roughly 25 percent of world GDP. This is not by accident, but rather by invention and intuition of markets not yet exploited.

The trajectory of AI development will not be determined by regulation or replication, but by the entrepreneurial spirit that drives innovation forward. As history has shown, nations that embrace risk, competition, and discovery will lead the next technological revolution, while those that prioritize control and restriction will fall behind. In the end, the future of AI will belong to those who dare to create, rather than those who merely imitate or regulate.