Vice President JD Vance Speaks at AI Summit in Paris
The United States declared it will continue to lead the world in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the AI Summit in Paris, France on February 10.
Representing the U.S was Vice President JD Vance, who made his international speaking debut at the Summit.
The Summit was attended by several heads of state and government. Tech CEOs, along with creative mogul Pharrell Williams, were also present.
After thanking President of France, Emmanuel Macron, for his hospitality, Vance commenced his speech:
“When conferences like this convene to discuss a cutting edge technology, oftentimes I think our response is to be self conscious, too risk averse. But never have I encountered a breakthrough in tech that calls us to do precisely the opposite.”
The Vice President stated that AI can have a positive impact on job creation, national security, healthcare, economic innovation, and free speech, among other things.
The singular theme in Vance’s speech was a call to prevent the over-regulation of AI.
“To restrict its development now, would not only unfairly benefit incumbents in this space, it would mean paralyzing one of the most promising technologies we have seen in generations,” he said.
Vance provided four points that the U.S. is committed to concerning AI use from a national and global approach:
His first point emphasized the superiority of American AI:
“American AI technology will continue to be the gold standard worldwide and we are the partner of choice for others foreign countries and certainly businesses as they expand their own use of AI.”
The Vice President stated “excessive regulation can kill the AI industry,” while discussing his second point.
The third point made by Vance is that AI must “remain free from ideological bias and not co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.”
Many critics of AI are concerned with its technology potentially replacing human labor. In his final point, Vance maintained that AI should do the opposite and announced the administration’s plan of doing so:
“The Trump administration will maintain a pro-worker growth path for AI. So it can be a potent tool for job creation in the U.S. It will not replace human beings – it will never replace human beings. Too many of the leaders in the AI industry when they talk about the sphere of replacing workers I think they really miss the point. AI we believe is going to make us more productive, more prosperous and more free. The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep that way.”
Vance declared his vision for the future of AI, which he hopes is used “to improve the well-being of our nations and their peoples”:
“If we choose the wrong approach on things like AI,” he said, “and choose to hold ourselves back, it will alter not only our GDP or the Stock Market, but the very future of the project that Lafayette and the American Founders set off to create.”
During a panel at the Summit, music and fashion mogul Pharrell Williams echoed the sentiments of JD Vance concerning AI. He mentioned that AI should be used for utility and not to replace creativity.
“In this whole AI Race what we need to remember is the human race,” Williams said.
