Facebook
X
LinkdIn
Copy Link
They won’t have liked the message or the messenger. With characteristic bluntness, Vice President J.D. Vance tore into the European Union’s smothering regulation of artificial intelligence today.
Still, Europe’s leaders should listen. Vance happens to be absolutely right.
When President Macron convened an AI summit in Paris this week, he was probably hoping for the usual platitudes from world leaders about “transformative technologies” and “empowering change” — along with a few billion euros for some data hubs in France. Unfortunately, no one told Vance how these things are meant to work. In his speech he spoke his mind, and tore into his hosts.
“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” he told the CEOs and heads of state in the hall. “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.”
Ouch. It probably made for uncomfortable listening for the EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the other assembled dignitaries. They won’t have liked the veiled threat: that tariffs might be a consequence of over-regulating America’s tech giants. Nor will they have appreciated the criticism of Europe’s approach to the sector.
Even so, the more thoughtful among them should concede that Vance is on to something. Slightly over a year ago the EU was boasting that it was the first region in the world to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI. It would protect citizens (apparently), preserve jobs and encourage entrepreneurs, who could build their companies with secure legal foundations. It would make Europe the global leader in the emerging technology.
But it hasn’t worked out that way. As Macron and some of the more pro-enterprise states warned at the time, the EU has killed its AI industry stone dead. The AI Act created rules that were too stringent too quickly. It pushed costs so high that most entrepreneurs went elsewhere. Its only real impact has been that giants such as Apple are switching off AI functions in Europe.
It has turned the continent into a backwater. The US and now China are already racing ahead with advanced technology — and it is probably too late to catch up. No doubt most officials in Brussels will dismiss the criticism as “far-right populism.” But it is hard to see what is so great about losing access to AI or preventing new companies from emerging. It shouldn’t take Vance to point this out.
Leave a Reply