2024's defining clash: AI vs regulators

The next year will see this extraordinary and impactful field alter the fabric of our lives - but it may not see any comprehensive regulatory approach taken by expert regulators

If there is one universal truth to the art of regulation, it is that technological advance inevitably works faster than regulators can respond. The first driving licences were required more than two decades after the automobile became a common sight on American streets, for example. Regulators have learned to live with this fact: They will always be behind technical innovators, struggling to play catch-up.

The problem we will have to deal with in 2024 is that the difference between the speed of innovation and that of regulatory action is growing ever vaster where it counts. For years now, this gap