Data Innovation

Please join ITIF for an expert panel discussion on the role of Chinese e-commerce platforms in facilitating counterfeiting, what this means for U.S. competitiveness, consumer trust, and global trade, and the steps policymakers should take to safeguard American innovators and consumers.

The European Commission’s 2025 Strategic Foresight Report misframes the U.S. as a rival on par with China, risking transatlantic unity and protectionist policies that weaken Europe while leaving China free to dominate critical technologies.

European consumers report a decline in online experiences since the Digital Markets Act took effect, as regulatory restrictions on platform integration and data use have reduced functionality, slowed searches, and fragmented services across maps, travel, jobs, and more.

Lawmakers in Montana, New Hampshire, and Idaho are advancing “right to compute” laws to protect individuals and businesses from limits on their ability to use computational tools and AI systems.

The idea that nations can invoke “AI sovereignty” to draw on U.S. technology when convenient, while walling off their markets, is not a bargain U.S. policymakers should entertain.

Without federal preemption on AI regulations, states are rushing to impose audits, transparency mandates, and sector-specific obligations—often with overlapping or conflicting rules that extend beyond state borders.

Europe’s pursuit of digital sovereignty rests on a flawed premise: that competing with the United States, rather than China, should be the central priority. To advance this goal, Brussels has embraced the so-called “Airbus model”—the belief that the government-led coordination that created an aerospace champion can be replicated to achieve dominance in semiconductors, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI). The idea is seductive and gaining traction, but the analogy is unproven and misguided.

The United States plans to win the AI race by “exporting its full AI technology stack—hardware, models, software, applications, and standards—to all countries willing to join America’s AI alliance.” To succeed, it will need to pursue the right partners, make offers that meet their ambitions, and resist the urge to lead with virtue over value.

As artificial intelligence upends the creative landscape, history offers a clear lesson: fighting change only delays progress, but those who adapt to it thrive. Creators must do the same with AI.

The European Commission’s DMA action against Meta reveals a strategy of using data protection law principles to stretch competition rules beyond their intended scope—ultimately setting a compliance bar no gatekeeper can meet, infantilizing users, and selectively targeting successful integrated American platforms.