Only weeks into his second term, President Donald Trump‘s administration is making good on campaign trail promises to position the United States “at the forefront” of artificial intelligence.
Vice President JD Vance recently told global political and business leaders at the AI Action Summit in Paris, France, that Trump’s second, nonconsecutive administration “will ensure that American AI technology continues to be the gold standard worldwide.”
The U.S. will remain “the partner of choice for others, foreign countries, and certainly businesses as they expand their own use of AI,” Vance added.
Global CEOs and heads of state from Australia, Canada, China, France, India, and Japan, among others, gathered at the summit with hopes of coordinating and harmonizing the development and regulation of AI technologies around the globe.
Vance’s speech pushed back against those goals, emphasizing that “excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.” Vance also underscored the U.S.’s interest in AI remaining “free from ideological bias” and that it wouldn’t “be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.” He also championed AI’s potential to “be a potent tool for job creation in the United States.”
Vance’s “America first” perspective previewed the U.S.’s decision to abstain from signing on to the summit’s final statement. The agreement, signed by more than 60 countries in attendance, including China, calls for ensuring AI is “open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure, and trustworthy.” It also includes language aimed at protecting “human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, consumer rights, and intellectual property.” Vance left the summit immediately after his remarks, joining the United Kingdom in passing on endorsing the final document.
Vance also took the opportunity to criticize the European Union’s generally heavy-handed approach to the tech industry, calling out the continent’s Digital Services Act and the 2018 General Data Protection Regulations. The GDPR measures have been used to threaten or fine American tech firms for billions of dollars in violations and are thought to have slowed innovation and investment in the industry in Europe.
Vance’s message that the U.S. will be moving full steam ahead with AI development came on the heels of Trump’s repeal of former President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI and the signing of a new one. Trump’s Jan. 23 executive order states, “It is the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”
China’s DeepSeek generative AI tool has intensified concerns stateside about the U.S.’s narrowing lead in the race against China for global dominance. Experts estimate that the U.S. may only be months ahead in some AI areas as China continues to spend billions of dollars through its government venture capital funds on the technology. China taking the lead on AI could mean a loss of U.S. leadership in global economic influence, military superiority, and norms on privacy and ethical matters.
While initial reports that China’s DeepSeek achieved comparable product results without the aid of commensurate investment and the high-powered microchips banned from being exported from the U.S. to Chinese rivals have come into question, the competitive threat from the authoritarian country remains beyond question. European AI efforts lag behind both superpowers, leading the bloc to pledge the equivalent of $206 billion to catch up in training the most complex models known as InvestAI.
In December 2024, the previous Congress issued a bipartisan House report with recommendations for the future of U.S. AI regulation. It acknowledged the importance of maintaining the nation’s leadership in AI and recommended a sectoral, incremental approach to regulating the technology in distinct areas. What kind of legislation comes out of the report’s recommendations remains to be seen in the new Congress, but Vance’s warnings that EU-style overregulation could hobble U.S. leadership will loom large in Washington.
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Vance’s speech may be remembered as a policy shift that determined the future of AI and the difference between the U.S. as a leader or a follower in the race against China.
R Street senior fellow and AI policy expert Adam Thierer called Vance’s speech “a full-throated rejection of European-style, risk-averse, speech-limiting, precautionary principle-oriented regulation.” He added, “Vance’s address represented a succinct articulation of a pro-U.S., future-embracing, entrepreneurialism-focused, permissionless innovation-oriented vision for AI and digital technology.”