CES26: EU, South Korea Frame Early Global Push for AI Regulation

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2025 — Officials from Ireland, Canada and South Korea said at CES2026  on Tuesday that artificial intelligence policy and innovation are entering a phase where coordination across borders matters as much as domestic investment, as two major regulatory frameworks — the European Union’s AI Act and South Korea’s new AI Framework Act — begin to shape global standards.

Caitlín Higgins Ní Chinnéide, Ireland’s consul general to the southwestern United States, said the EU AI Act has become one of the most comprehensive regulatory regimes governing artificial intelligence. The law classifies AI systems in tiers of risk, imposing stricter requirements on high-risk uses such as biometric identification while allowing lower-risk applications to develop with fewer constraints.

Higgins Ní Chinnéide said Ireland supports the supranational risk-based approach because “AI technologies are inherently cross-border and require shared rules to scale.” At the national level, she pointed to Ireland’s AI strategy in July 2021, which has continued updating it as the pace of technological change accelerated, with a particular emphasis on reskilling and upskilling workers across sectors including health care and public services.