It has been three years since ChatGPT's public launch triggered a global scramble to regulate artificial intelligence. Yet as 2026 continues to unfold, the world's three major economic powers remain further apart than ever on how, or whether, to control the technology. And with a major EU enforcement deadline just weeks away, the world's three major economic powers are still nowhere near agreement on how to control it.
From 2 August 2026, the European Union's transparency obligations for AI systems take full effect, with penalties for non-compliance reaching up to €35 million or seven per cent of global annual turnover. Yet the United States has moved in the opposite direction entirely, while China has built a parallel system incompatible with either. Academics and policymakers have described the result as a 'structurally incompatible' set of regimes that leaves multinational companies unable to run a single global compliance programme.
