JD Vance walked out of a dinner with heads of state on Monday night when the Chinese vice-premier “started singing the praises of trade and the UN”, according to a reporter in the room.
Dominique Seux, the only French journalist present at the dinner at Paris’s Elysée palace on Monday night, said the US vice-president, clearly saw the speech – delivered by Zhang Guoqing – as “pure anti-Trumpist”.
The report came before Mr Vance took to the stage at the AI Action summit in the French capital on Tuesday to warn both European allies and rivals like China against “excessive regulation” of artificial intelligence and tightening governments’ grip. He also rejected what he called content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.”
In a room full of fellow senior politicians including Emmanuel Macron, France’s president and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, Mr Vance signalled America’s intention to remain the dominant force in AI.
“America wants to partner with all of you,” he said. “We want to embark on the AI revolution before us with the spirit of openness and collaboration.
“But to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it, and we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism.”
He said the new Trump administration “is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening screws on US tech companies with international footprints.
“America cannot and will not accept that, and we think it’s a terrible mistake,” he said.
The vice-president told the summit the world was on the brink of a “new industrial revolution” but said that this would never be realised “if over-regulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball.”
Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech at the end of the first day of the AI Action Summit on Monday – LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
In what appeared to be a warning shot at China, Mr Vance also said the US would “safeguard AI and chip technology from theft and misuse and close pathways to adversaries that threaten us.”
“Partnering with such regimes never pays off in the long term,” he said, without specifying the regimes he was referring to.
The summit comes as mood on AI continues to shift as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant.
The technology world has closely watched whether the Trump administration would ease recent antitrust enforcement that had seen the U.S. sue or investigate the industry’s biggest players.
European lawmakers 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, Mr 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 United States, China and Europe have diverged.
Mr Vance is leading the American delegation at the summit, where representatives of nearly 100 countries including China, India and the United States will meet to determine if competing national interests can be reconciled.
OpenAI boss’s early departure
Mr Vance was not the only big name reported to have cut short his dinner, held to mark a major two-day AI Action summit in Paris’ Grand Palais.
Sam Altman, the OpenAI boss, also left early when he received Elon Musk’s offer to buy his company during the dinner.
Mr Altman rejected the offer from Mr Musk to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion.
“No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Mr Altman responded on X.
Mr Musk, who bought X under its former moniker for $44 billion in 2022, replied to the post by simply writing: “Swindler.”
Guests at the dinner were reportedly “quietly following the whole thing on their phones”, according to Seux, who added the gathering was a mixture of “optimism and stress regarding AI”.
Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, warned: “If AI doesn’t benefit all citizens, then trust in science will fall dramatically.”
Mr Macron spoke out against the advent of “a digital far West” that would question the international order formed since 1945 and cited François Rabelais, the French Renaissance writer: “Science without conscience is the ruin of the Soul.”
French officials have sought to play down the prospect that the US will refuse to sign a summit declaration, which pledges to work toward “inclusive and sustainable AI”.
