Chapter 1: Regulating Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact

In the context of increasing global competition and the need to find efficient and rapid solutions to be successful in this process (at private business or state level), factors such as knowledge, technology, innovation and more recently Artificial Intelligence (AI) are considered elements that can be exploited in order to create competitive advantages and increase the added value for the participants. The aim of this chapter is to examine the opportunities and challenges that AI creates, in the context of the increasing need for regulation to supervise the development and deployment of AI in different sectors. The increasing adoption of AI has already produced significant transformations in many sectors: education, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, transportation by increasing efficiency, improving innovation and facilitating service delivery. At the same time, these advances have raised questions related to solutions for job replacement, data privacy, fairness and societal inequalities. In this chapter, the authors aim to highlight how different countries have regulated AI and the differences between general regulations on AI, such as the EU AI Act, and the sector-specific regulations prevalent in some countries, such as the United States, Japan, China or Canada.