For the past decade, Europe has been at the forefront of designing strong—but flexible—rules around data use and the safe development of artificial intelligence (AI), but the European Union’s (EU) recently announced plans to simplify some key measures around data privacy and AI governance have met with a mixed response from businesses, consumer groups and data experts.

For the past decade, Europe has been at the forefront of designing strong—but flexible—rules around data use and the safe development of artificial intelligence (AI), but the European Union’s (EU) recently announced plans to simplify some key measures around data privacy and AI governance have met with a mixed response from businesses, consumer groups and data experts.

Neil Hodge is a freelance business journalist and photographer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He writes on insurance and risk management, corporate governance, internal audit, compliance, and legal...