He came, he spoke, then he left the Grand Palais, without listening to his counterparts' speeches: American Vice President JD Vance's first European steps struck a chord at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit, on Tuesday, February 11. In front of Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who co-chaired the conference, the Republican immediately asserted that "the United States of America is the leader in AI and our administration plans to keep it that way."

He then sounded the charge both against "censorship" by authoritarian regimes, targeting China without naming it, and against Europe's desire to regulate these booming technologies. This was all in the name of defending "prosperous communities" and "free speech," the unlimited freedom of expression so dear to the Trump administration. The evening before, at a dinner organized at the Elysée Palace with executives and bosses present in Paris, Donald Trump's former running mate had not waited for dessert to slip away either, even before the speech by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.

While Elon Musk, the controversial owner of X, refrained from even remotely participating, Trump's right-hand man took it upon himself to multiply the warnings. "Excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry," said the US vice president, saying the Trump administration was also "troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening screws on US tech companies." "America cannot and will not accept that," he said, also tackling European regulations DSA (Digital Services Act), on social media, and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), on privacy.

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