J.D. Vance stepped onto the world stage for the first time as U.S. vice president. He attended a high-profile artificial intelligence (AI) summit in France. Vance warned global leaders and tech industry executives that too many rules could cripple the rapidly growing AI industry.
Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs, and scientists from around 100 countries took part in the two-day Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. All are competing for power in the fast-moving tech industry.
The summit gave many European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. In a speech on Tuesday, Vance framed AI as an economic turning point. He called it an advance “on par with the invention of the steam engine.”
Vance underscored a widening rift over the future of AI. He added, “But it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball.”
The U.S. VP also took aim at foreign governments considering tighter regulations for American tech firms. He called such moves troubling.
The vice president is using the AI summit and a conference in Munich, Germany, later this week as a platform for President Donald Trump’s style of diplomacy.
The United States under President Trump champions a hands-off approach to tech. U.S. officials say that tactic fuels innovation. Hoping to boost U.S. power to compete, President Trump has removed former President Joe Biden’s AI guardrails. Those actions are pressuring the European Union to pursue a lighter-touch approach to AI rules in hopes of keeping European companies in the tech race.
Others at the summit expressed concerns over AI’s potential dangers. Nations are grappling with how to regulate tech that is entwined with defense and warfare.
“I think one day we will have to find ways to control AI, or else we will lose control of everything,” says NATO commander Pierre Vandier.
In a speech at the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron told attendees his plans for AI rules. “We will simplify,” he says. “It’s very clear we have to resynchronize with the rest of the world.”
In his first major policy speech since becoming vice president last month, Vance said the Trump administration will “ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from . . . bias.” He pledged the United States would “never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech.”
I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. — Jeremiah 10:23
