AI spring and its regulation discourse: a bibliometric study of trends in literature

This study was prompted by the rapid acceleration of AI capabilities in the trans former era since 2018 and the concurrent regulatory shift that elevated legal accountability and public governance to central policy and research priorities. It contributes by treating 2018-2025 as a distinct governance regime in which transformer-enabled capability scaling and foundation models shifted AI gov ernance debates toward enforceable accountability architectures.

The study maps the regulation-accountability-public governance nexus as an operational problem: which accountability forums dominate, which regulatory instruments anchor in the field, and which public-administration mechanisms remain underdeveloped. Using multiple queries in the Web of Science Core Collection, validated with Scopus, and analyzed with Bibliometrix and complementary science-mapping techniques, the study examines publication trends, influen tial contributors and outlets, collaboration networks, and citation and thematic structures.

Publication output increases sharply after 2022, aligning with major regulatory milestones such as the EU AI Act. Results show a strong European concentration, with European actors serving as central hubs in collaboration networks and indicate that 2018-2021 publications form a foundational intel lectual core. The field is anchored in legally oriented concepts (law, transparency, governance, accountability, data protection), while themes such as legitimacy, institutional logics, and rights operationalization remain underdeveloped.

Despite growing interdisciplinarity, thematic fragmentation persists, highlighting the need for stronger integration across legal scholarship, public administration, and tech nical AI research, and providing a focused basis for future research and policy agendas.