By AFP - Agence France Presse
Vance puts Europe and China on alert over AI regulation
Tom BARFIELD and Daxia ROJAS
US Vice President JD Vance warned European allies on Tuesday against over-regulating the US-dominated artificial intelligence sector and China against using the technology to increase its grip on power.
The confrontational remarks by Donald Trump's vice president to world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss AI undermined the unity that host France hoped to project for the two-day meeting.
Dozens of nations signed a declaration calling for efforts to protect the technology with regulation to make it “open” and “ethical”. However, the communiqué was not signed by the United States or Britain, which is no longer a member of the EU.
“Over-regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it is taking off,” Vance told global leaders and heads of the technology sector at the Grand Palais in the French capital, calling on Europe to show ‘optimism rather than trepidation’.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had minutes earlier called for “collective and global efforts to establish governance and standards that uphold our shared values, address risks and build trust”.
Modi co-hosted the summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, and his country will host the next meeting on advancing global rules.
Speaking after Vance, Macron said that global rules were “the foundation, along with 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 the 60 signatories who agreed that it is a priority for “AI to be open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure, and trustworthy” under “international frameworks”.
AI must 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 Great Britain nor the United States signed, nor was there any indication that the main players in the sector, such as Sam Altman's OpenAI, would join the agreement.
“You only expect us to sign up to initiatives that we think are in our national interest,” the Prime Minister's spokesman Keir Starmer told reporters in London.
Dario Amodei, director of AI developer Anthropic, said the summit was a “missed opportunity” to ensure that democratic nations control AI, prepare for the security threats caused by the technology, and anticipate its social and economic disruption.
- 'Authoritarian regimes'
Vance also took a veiled shot at China, saying that “authoritarian regimes” were looking to use AI to increase control of citizens at home and abroad.
“Partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, delve into, and take over your information infrastructure,” Vance said.
Chinese startup DeepSeek shook up the AI sector last month by unveiling a sophisticated chatbot that it claims was developed on a relatively low budget. A growing number of countries have taken steps to block the app from government devices due to security concerns.
Vance also pointed to “cheap technology... heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes”, referring to surveillance cameras and 5G mobile internet equipment widely sold abroad by China.
Speaking after Vance, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels would push to mobilize 200 billion euros ($206 billion) for AI investments in Europe, with 50 billion euros coming from the EU budget and the rest from “suppliers, investors and industry”.
- OpenAI in Musk's sights
After Macron announced on Monday an investment of 109 billion euros in French AI projects and a $500 billion “Stargate” program in the US led by OpenAI, the big number underscored the resources needed to compete in the latest technological wave.
A consortium led by Elon Musk, a Trump ally and the world's richest man, has made an offer of almost $100 billion to buy OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, the Wall Street Journal reported.
If successful, the deal will increase the technological influence of Musk, who is already head of X, Tesla, SpaceX, and his own AI developer, xAI.
Altman, the head of OpenAI who was due to speak in Paris on Tuesday, responded with a dry “no thanks” about X, while senior executive Chris Lehane said OpenAI was “not for sale”.
Vance did not comment directly on the possible deal.
He pledged to “ensure that American AI technology remains the gold standard around the world” but also aimed at tech-heavy “incumbents” who, he said, have pushed for regulations that could strangle emerging competitors.
In the past, Altman has called for regulation, including because of the “existential risk” that some computer scientists believe superhuman AI could pose to human survival.
Instead of benefiting only the big players, “we believe, and will fight for policies that ensure, that AI will make our workers more productive,” said Vance, predicting “higher wages, better benefits and safer, more prosperous communities.”
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