JD Vance warns EU that ‘excessive regulation’ could kill AI

Paris — US vice-president JD Vance warned Europeans on Tuesday that what he called their excessive regulation of AI could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship”.

The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concern about safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant.

Vance, forthright in setting out the Trump administration’s America First agenda, said the US intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the EU’s far tougher regulatory approach.

“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” Vance told an AI summit in Paris.

“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” he said.

Vance said that navigating Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.

The technology world has closely watched whether the Trump administration would ease recent antitrust enforcement that had seen the US sue or investigate the industry’s biggest players.

While Vance said the US would champion American AI — which big players develop — he said, “Our laws will keep Big Tech, little tech, and all other developers on a level playing field.”

He said the world should be sceptical when incumbents called for safety regulations that could entrench their powerful status.

European legislators last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology. Tech giants and some capitals are pushing for it to be enforced leniently.

On the summit’s first day, host French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to cut red tape to make it easier for AI to flourish in the region, after the Trump administration’s unwinding of AI guardrails laid bare how far strategies towards AI in the US, China and Europe have diverged.

Vance is leading the American delegation at the summit, where representatives of nearly 100 countries including China, India and the US will meet to determine if competing national interests can be reconciled.

Meanwhile, Europe would invest an additional €50bn to bolster the bloc’s AI ambition, European commission’s Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

It would come on top of the European AI Champions Initiative, that had already pledged €150bn from providers, investors and industry, Von der Leyen told the Paris AI Summit.

“Thereby we aim to mobilise a total of €200bn for AI investments in Europe,” she said.

Von der Leyen said investments would focus on industrial and mission-critical technologies.

Companies which have signed up to the European AI Champions initiative spearheaded by investment company General Catalyst include Airbus, ASML, Siemens, Infineon, Philips, Mistral and Volkswagen.

Reuters