Vice President J.D. Vance won the support of the British government when declining to sign a leaders’ declaration on “inclusive” artificial intelligence (AI) following a high-level AI summit in Paris. This followed Vance speaking out against EU digital regulations that could stifle a new “industrial revolution.” Notably, industry giants like Sam Altman’s OpenAI also stayed out of the agreement.
The summit, held at the Grand Palais, saw 61 signatories—including China, France, Germany, and India—agreeing on the importance of making AI “open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure, and trustworthy.” The statement also emphasized so-called human rights, gender equality, and linguistic diversity.
When asked why the U.S. and the United Kingdom refused to sign, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman stated, “We’ll only ever sign up to initiatives that are in the UK’s national interests.”
In his speech, Vance urged international partners to avoid deals with “authoritarian regimes,” such as China, asserting that AI must remain free from ideological bias. He emphasized, “American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.”
Targeting the European Union (EU), Vance warned that excessive AI regulation could stifle a transformative industry. He also criticized the EU’s Digital Service Act, particularly its overregulation of speech and so-called misinformation.
“The massive regulations it created about taking down content and policing so-called misinformation. 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,” he argued.
