GDPR does not restrict EU companies' activities in less regulated markets. They are still just as free to abuse the privacy of users in USA as are their competitors overseas.
Your anxiety appears to be about American AI companies' competiveness in the face of even worse abuse of users' privacy in China than in USA.
In a race to the bottom do you really want to be the winner, no matter what?
> This Regulation applies to the processing of personal data in the context of the activities of an establishment of a controller or a processor in the Union, regardless of whether the processing takes place in the Union or not.
