> The EU, Japan, et al. being mere consumers sincerely cannot write the rules because they have no weight to throw around

Exactly what I'd expect someone from a country where the economy is favoured over the society to say - particularly in the context of consumer protection.

You want access to a trade union of consumers? You play by the rules of that Union.

American exceptionalism doesn't negate that. A large technical moat does. But DeepSeek has jumped in and revealed how shallow that moat really is for AI at this neonatal stage.