Digitalisation and Populism: EXPRESS<sp>2</sp> ideas featured in The Conversation
Giulia Gentile’s piece examines how the dismantling of AI regulation under Trump embodies the risks EXPRESS² investigates in its study of the EU social contract
In a timely and thought-provoking article in The Conversation, Giulia Gentile, a researcher on the EXPRESS² project and lecturer in law at the University of Essex, analyses the abrupt dismantling of AI safety policy under the Trump administration in the United States.
Titled 'How the US threw out any concerns about AI safety within days of Donald Trump coming to office', the article investigates how the US government effectively erased prior frameworks aimed at governing the risks of artificial intelligence in early 2017. Gentile argues that the elimination of these safeguards reflects a broader populist logic of rejecting expert-based regulation in favour of political messaging and immediate economic priorities.
Gentile’s analysis is highly relevant to the EXPRESS², which examines digitalisation and populism as disruptive elements to the European social contract. As technological transformation accelerates, EXPRESS² researchers are exploring how democracies can balance innovation with accountability and the impact of regulatory choices on public trust in institutions.
