Vice President JD Vance told world leaders in Paris on Tuesday that the United States intends to remain the dominant force in artificial intelligence (AI) and warned that the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach to the technology could cripple it. 

Vance warned that the technology should be free from ideological bias and that President Donald Trump’s administration would ensure that the most powerful artificial intelligence systems would be built in the United States. He added that Washington wanted to partner with the world in the industry.

“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” said Vance, at his first scheduled trip abroad since taking office.

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“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off, and we’ll make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies and I’d like to see that deregulatory flavor making its way into a lot of the conversations at this conference.”

Vance was speaking at the AI Action Summit where world leaders, top tech executives and policymakers gathered to discuss the technology’s impact on global security, economics and governance. French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Shri Modi and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing were among those in attendance. 

The summit comes weeks after Trump announced a new $500 billion AI infrastructure project called Stargate. 

Vance said that Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.

European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology. Tech giants and some capitals are pushing for it to be enforced leniently.

Vice President JD Vance speaking at the summit on Tuesday.  (LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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Vance has previously suggested the U.S. should reconsider its NATO commitments if European governments impose restrictions on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.

“Many of our most productive tech companies are forced to deal with the EU’s Digital Services Act and the mass of regulations it created about taking down content and policing so-called misinformation,” Vance said. 

“And of course, we want to ensure that the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation.

Vance said that hostile foreign adversaries have weaponized AI software to rewrite history, surveil users, censor speech and undermine other nations’ national security. He said the Trump administration will work to safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse.

He also said American workers will be central to the United States’ policies on AI.

Vance said American workers will be central to the United States’ policies on AI. (iStock / iStock)

“We believe – and we will fight for policies that ensure – that AI is going to make our workers productive, and we expect that they will reap the rewards, with higher wages, better benefits and safer and more prosperous communities,” Vance said. “From law to medicine, manufacturing, the most immediate applications of AI almost all involved supplementing – not replacing – the work being done by Americans.”

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The U.S. and the U.K. did not sign the Paris AI Summit’s declaration entitled “Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence.”

The communiqué prioritizes “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet.”

It wasn’t immediately clear why the U.S. and the U.K. did not sign up. 

Reuters contributed to this report.