PARIS — JD Vance took his first steps onto the international stage this week as U.S. Vice President, utilizing a crucial AI summit in Paris alongside a security conference in Munich to promote Donald Trump’s assertive diplomatic strategy. The 40-year-old vice president, who spent just a year and a half in the Senate before joining Trump’s ticket, is anticipated to challenge European initiatives aimed at tightening regulations for artificial intelligence while advocating for a more free-flowing and innovation-centric approach.
The AI summit has attracted global leaders, prominent technology figures, and policy makers, all gathering to deliberate on AI’s influence on international security, economic landscapes, and governance. Among the notable attendees is Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, highlighting Beijing’s significant ambition to shape worldwide AI standards. French President Emmanuel Macron emphasized on Monday that the summit serves as a “wake-up call” for Europe to enhance its competitiveness in a technological field currently dominated by the U.S. and China.
Macron further urged for the simplification of regulations in both France and the European Union to foster advancements in AI, specifically pointing to sectors like healthcare, mobility, and energy, while calling for Europe to “resynchronize” its efforts with the remainder of the global community. “We are most of the time too slow,” he remarked.
The conference highlights a competitive landscape for AI supremacy, where Europe is vying to regulate and invest while China expands its access through state-supported tech enterprises, and the U.S. under Trump promotes a more permissive approach.
In Paris, Vance has indicated his intention to engage in open dialogues with global leaders on AI and geopolitical matters. “I think there’s a lot that some of the leaders who are present at the AI summit could do to, frankly — bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, help us diplomatically there — and so we’re going to be focused on those meetings in France,” Vance stated in an interview.
It’s anticipated that he will hold separate meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. On Tuesday, Vance will also have a working lunch with Macron to deliberate on issues related to Ukraine and the Middle East. Vance, echoing Trump’s views, has raised concerns over U.S. expenditure on Ukraine and the broader strategy aimed at isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting Trump’s assertion of resolving the conflict within six months should he be re-elected.
His diplomatic tour will proceed to Germany, where he will attend the Munich Security Conference, urging European allies to bolster their commitments to NATO and Ukraine, and he may engage with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Vance has also criticized what he perceives as an “evil trend” across Europe toward censorship, defending the necessity of allowing open discourse: “We believe that free and open debate is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of our European friends have gone the wrong direction there,” he remarked.
European leaders remain attentive to Trump’s recent threats regarding potential tariffs on the EU, as well as his controversial suggestions concerning Greenland and the future of Palestinians in Gaza following the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, proposals that have met with strong rejection from Arab allies.
The summit serves as a platform for significant announcements and developments involving major tech firms like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, with an aim to create the first comprehensive international discussion about the future of AI. Linda Griffin, Mozilla’s vice president of public policy, referred to it as a norm-setting occasion. A new global public-private initiative named “Current AI” is set to be initiated to support extensive initiatives that align with broader public interests.
Nick Reiners, a senior analyst at Eurasia Group, highlighted the opportunity to redefine AI governance by shifting power away from a select few private entities toward constructing an AI model that serves public interests. However, uncertainty lingers regarding the U.S. commitment to such undertakings. “There’s a lot of complicated questions to resolve” concerning the control of AI systems, noted Nobel Prize laureate Demis Hassabis, founder of Google’s DeepMind research lab. “But also I think even more complicated are maybe the geopolitical questions about things like regulation.”
Meanwhile, a small number of protesters assembled at Paris’ Bastille Square, advocating for a halt on the development of advanced AI technologies due to perceived catastrophic risks to humanity, while others highlighted the environmental impact of the AI industry regarding fossil fuel emissions. Notably, discussions for imposing strict limitations were not anticipated to be top priorities for the world leaders gathered for the summit.
French organizers are hopeful that the summit will kickstart substantial investments in Europe, striving to position the region as a significant player in an industry largely influenced by the competition between the U.S. and China. Macron announced new investments in France totaling 109 billion euros ($113 billion) to be implemented over five years. This includes a 50 billion euro ($52 billion) contribution from the United Arab Emirates for a large data center and tech facilities, and 20 billion euros from Canada’s Brookfield for AI project deployments.
The summit is co-hosted by Modi alongside Macron, aimed at ensuring the AI sector does not morph solely into a battleground between the U.S. and China. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri emphasized the importance of ensuring equitable access to AI, avoiding the perpetuation of existing digital divides globally. Nonetheless, the ongoing U.S.-China tensions loom large over broader discussions.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated opposition to limiting access to AI tools. Following the launch of a new AI chatbot from the Chinese company DeepSeek, calls in the U.S. Congress have intensified for security-related restrictions. “We oppose drawing ideological lines and oppose overstretching national security concepts and politicizing economic and trade issues,” Guo outlined, asserting that China champions open-source AI technologies and the accessibility of AI services to share the benefits of such advancements across all nations.
Alexandra Reeve Givens from the Center for Democracy and Technology cautioned that the American strategy must transcend mere technological rivalry. “If it’s just a techno solution that we’re going to out-innovate everybody else, but we’re not going to have the norms, the support, and the human relationships for our global partners to really make American leadership and allyship stick, then it’s a hollow promise,” she remarked.
