JD Vance preaches innovation above all

Speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris, France, US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday laid out a vision of technological innovation above all — especially above regulation or international accords.

“I’m not here this morning to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago. I’m here to talk about AI opportunity,” Vance said. “We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry.” The vice president told a group of heads of state that the regulations that the European Union has placed on tech, including the Digital Services Act and AI Act, have been onerous.

Additionally, the US and UK did not sign onto a new international agreement put forward at the summit — which China, India, and France agreed to. The accord lays out norms for AI safety and sustainable energy use.

Europe already achieved first-mover status in regulating artificial intelligence software, largely a Silicon Valley export. But the Trump administration has signaled that the gap between America’s hands-off approach to AI and Europe’s hands-on attempt to rein it in will only widen in the coming years.