Paris, France — Vice President JD Vance, in his first international address, warned European Union countries against overregulation and said the Trump administration wants artificial intelligence to remain free from ideological bias.
“The Trump administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints,” Vance said while speaking to world leaders and tech executives at the Artificial Intelligence Action summit in Paris, France. “Now, America cannot and will not accept that, and we think it’s a terrible mistake — not just for the United States of America — but for your own countries.”
Vance said the U.S. wants to ensure that the internet is a safe place, but suggested the European Union’s Digital Services Act had gone too far, enacting “massive regulations” 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,” Vance said.
The Digital Services Act seeks to hold platforms more accountable for protecting European users from harmful or illegal content on their sites and imposes fines on violators. Last July, the EU found that the social media platform X, owned by Department of Government Effficiency head and Trump ally Elon Musk, did not comply with the act’s transparency or accountability requirements.
Vance told leaders, including European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, that excessive regulation of the AI sector could “kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off” and the Trump administration will make it a priority to promote pro-growth AI policies.
“I’d like to see that deregulatory flavor making its way into a lot of the conversations at this conference,” Vance said.
Vance promoted America-first AI policies during his address, echoing a push by French President Emmanuel Macron for the EU to embrace a deregulatory environment to encourage more AI development on the continent.
Macron said Monday that France generates enough clean electric power to build artificial intelligence centers, which require massive amounts of energy.
“I have a good friend on the other part of the ocean saying ‘drill, baby, drill,'” Macron said, in reference to President Trump and his push for fossil fuel energy. “Here, there is no need to ‘drill, baby, drill.’ It is just ‘plug, baby, plug.'”
Though the intent of the summit, which Macron is co-hosting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was to establish standards for more sustainable AI in the public interest, it has been overshadowed by the race between global powers to become the dominant country in the sector.
Major American tech CEOs Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are attending the summit, as well as world leaders, including Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.
Vance said the Trump administration would ensure that the U.S. continues to be the partner of choice for foreign countries and businesses in developing AI.
While the vice president did not mention China — or its new AI company DeepSeek — he put “hostile foreign adversaries” who have “weaponized A.I. software to rewrite history, surveil users, and censor speech” on notice.
“I want to be clear: this administration will block such efforts, full stop,” Vance said. “We will safeguard American A.I. and chip technologies from theft and misuse, work with our allies and partners to strengthen and extend these protections and close pathways to advert areas attaining A.I. capabilities that threaten all of our people.”
He extended the warning to allies as well.
“I would also remind our international friends here today that partnering with such regimes, it never pays off in the long term. From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes,” Mr. Vance said.
