The institutional stack: Realigning U.S. AI governance

The authors map U.S. AI governance across five connected layers: physical infrastructure, technical systems, applications, markets and society. Their qualitative analysis identifies gaps between rapid technology development and oversight spread across federal initiatives, state laws, sector regulators and voluntary industry commitments.

They compare U.S. arrangements with approaches in the European Union, United Kingdom and China, then propose a hybrid framework combining public investment, adaptive standards, legal remedies, antitrust oversight and public-interest principles. The analysis asks how democratic institutions can keep pace with the infrastructure and markets shaping AI’s effects on people.