Regulating Artificial Intelligence in the Era of Data Protection: A Comparative Legal Analysis of the European Union and Indian Frameworks

The present data protection legislative frameworks are facing significant problems due to the rapid expansion of AI technology in industry, administration, and the judiciary. The regulatory frameworks of the EU and India with relation to the application of AI technology in data processing are compared in this study. The EU has created the GDPR and EU AI Act, two pieces of legislation that provide a risk-based framework for regulating AI technologies and how they affect the processing of personal data. However, as the DPDPA was passed in 2023, India is still in the early phases of creating a regulatory framework for the usage of AI technologies. Despite being a significant step forward in the evolution of Indian data protection legislation, the DPDPA lacks any provisions pertaining to artificial intelligence. Four major conclusions have been drawn from this paper's analysis of primary legal acts, court rulings, and public policies: normative material convergence in foundational norms; significant divergence in the extent of AI governance; a significant gap in the statutory treatment of automated decision-making; and an urgent need for legislative reform. The study concludes with the creation of a number of thoughtfully crafted recommendations for India that expand upon the EU's regulatory framework while taking India's development aspirations into consideration.