Does the Brussels Effect Extend from Data Protection to AI Governance in Africa? Examining the Relationship Between European Frameworks and African Policy Adoption | Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
A paper presented at the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society examines whether Europe's regulatory influence — the so-called Brussels Effect — is shaping AI governance policy across African nations, as it previously shaped data protection law on the continent.
Why this matters: When Europe writes rules, smaller economies often copy them just to keep trading. That happened with data protection. The question now is whether the same pull is shaping how African countries regulate AI. If it is, those countries may be adopting frameworks built for European conditions, European industries, and European political priorities. That is not automatically wrong, but it matters who is setting the terms. Rules designed elsewhere tend to reflect someone else's interests first.
Who should care: AI governance · Lawyers · Administrators · General readers · Policy · Privacy officers
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