Vance puts Europe, China on notice over AI regulation

AFP | Paris

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US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday warned European allies against over-regulating the US-dominated artificial intelligence sector and China against using the technology to tighten its grip on power.

The confrontational remarks by Donald Trump’s deputy to world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss AI punctured the unity that hosts France had hoped to project for the two-day meeting.

Dozens of nations signed a statement calling for efforts to flank the technology with regulation to make it “open” and “ethical”. But the communique was not signed by the United States or Britain, which is no longer an EU member.

“Excessive regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it’s taking off,” Vance told global leaders and tech industry chiefs at the French capital’s Grand Palais, calling on Europe to show “optimism rather than trepidation”. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had minutes earlier called for “collective, global efforts to establish governance and standards that uphold our shared values, address risks and build trust”.

Modi co-hosted the summit with France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his country will host the next meeting on advancing global rules. Speaking after Vance, Macron said global rules were “the foundation, alongside innovation and acceleration, of what will allow AI to arrive and endure”, in an apparent rebuff to the US vice president.

China, France, Germany and India were among 60 signatories who agreed it is a priority that “AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy” under “international frameworks”. AI should also be “sustainable for people and the planet,” the text added.

The number of signatories was reduced after the French presidency removed Montenegro and a duplicate mention of Sweden. Neither Britain nor the United States signed, and there was also no indication that key industry players like Sam Altman’s OpenAI would jump aboard.

Dario Amodei, head of AI developer Anthropic, said the summit was a “missed opportunity” to ensure democratic nations control AI, prepare for safety threats from the technology and pre-empt its social and economic disruption.