VP JD Vance Urges AI Action Summit Participants to Embrace Opportunity Over Fear

The Vice President, JD Vance, is currently traveling abroad for official duties. He kicked off his trip in Paris, France, where he participated in the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. Subsequently, he made his way to Munich, Germany, to attend the Security Conference. On the first day of the Summit, Vance presented the United States’ stance on AI and highlighted the prospects it offers.

Vance’s speech at the Summit, though concise, lasting a little over 15 minutes, effectively outlined the US vision for AI. He specifically urged our European partners to avoid excessive regulations and censorship and stay vigilant against adversarial nations.

To grasp the essence of his address, watch the complete video attached below. In his speech, Vance stressed the significance of embracing opportunities rather than giving in to fear or concerns about safety. Furthermore, he outlined four primary objectives that need to be pursued.

1. Ensuring that American AI technology continues to be the gold standard
2. Eschewing excessive regulation
3. Keeping it free from ideological bias and from being “co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship”
4. Remaining pro-worker

Some added highlights:

I’m not here this morning to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago.  I’m here to talk about AI opportunity. 

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The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way.  The U.S. possesses all components across the full AI stack, including advanced semiconductor design, frontier algorithms, and, of course, transformational applications.

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[T]he Trump Administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American designed and manufactured chips.

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America wants to partner with all of you, and we want to embark on the AI revolution before us with a spirit of openness and collaboration.

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And we need our European friends, in particular, to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.

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[T]he Trump Administration is troubled by reports that some foreign governments are considering tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints.  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.

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Many of our most productive tech companies are forced to deal with the EU’s Digital Services Act and the massive regulations it created about taking down content and policing so-called misinformation. 

And, of course, we want to ensure the Internet is a safe place.  But 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. 

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The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety.  It will be won by building — from reliable power plants to the manufacturing facilities that can produce the chips of the future. 

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[T]he Trump Administration will ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias and never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech.  

We can trust our people to think, to consume information, to develop their own ideas, and to debate with one another in the open marketplace of ideas. 

Now, we’ve also watched as hostile foreign adversaries have weaponized AI software to rewrite history, surveil users, and censor speech.

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I want to be clear.  This administration will block such efforts, full stop. We will safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse, work with our allies and partners to strengthen and extend these protections, and close pathways to  [adversaries] attaining AI capabilities that threaten all of our people.  

And I would also remind our international friends here today that partnering with such regimes, it never pays off in the long term.

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But as I know, and I think some of this — some of us in this room have learned from experience, partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in, and seize your information infrastructure.  

Should a deal seem too good to be true, just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley: If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.

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Now, this doesn’t mean, of course, that all concerns about safety go out the window.  But focus matters, and we must focus now on the opportunity to catch lightning in a bottle, unleash our most brilliant innovators, and use AI to improve the well-being of our nations and their peoples. 

Three weeks into his tenure as vice president, JD Vance appears to be settling into the role comfortably and representing the U.S. on the world stage confidently and admirably. 

His remarks indicate he has a solid grasp on the promise of AI and the importance of seizing the opportunity of it, rather than over-regulating it out of safety concerns. 

That grasp seems to be a sight better than his predecessor’s.

Kamala Harris explains AI:

“AI is kind of a fancy thing. First of all, it’s two letters. It means ‘Artificial Intelligence.'” pic.twitter.com/yurodfTOY9

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 12, 2023

I’d say he’s earning his keep just fine.