---
title: "Global AI governance"
course: "PHIL 110 · Make ethical calls about AI"
unit: "Governance and compliance"
lesson: 31 of 40
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/make-ethical-calls-about-ai/global-ai-governance
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Global AI governance

Lesson 31 of 40 in **Make ethical calls about AI** (PHIL 110), unit "Governance and compliance". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Apply the EU AI Act's four-tier risk classification to assess the level of ethical scrutiny a given AI application warrants — classifying it as unacceptable risk, high risk, limited risk, or minimal risk, and stating what obligations follow.
- Compare the US and EU regulatory approaches: state one concrete difference between the US model (sector-specific enforcement) and the EU model (comprehensive horizontal legislation)

## Teaching notes
Case: Meta's €1.2B GDPR fine (Ireland DPC, 2023) — the largest GDPR fine to date, for transferring EU user data to US servers without adequate safeguards. Meta had to restructure its transatlantic data flows. Anchors the US-vs-EU comparison: Meta is a US company that faced binding consequences under EU law.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 31 complete: Global AI governance."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "The compliance-ethics gap" (lesson 32 of 40), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/make-ethical-calls-about-ai/the-compliance-ethics-gap.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: US AI enforcement in practice
Next lesson: The compliance-ethics gap