If the first global AI summit 15 months ago, hosted by Britain’s then prime minister Rishi Sunak, focused more on co-operation to tackle the risks of AI, the latest this week in Paris highlighted a shift in the dynamics: towards geopolitical competition, and the quest for technological and economic advantage. On his first foreign trip as US vice-president, JD Vance signalled that the US was ripping out the brakes and putting its foot to the floor to develop AI. The US, and the UK, did not sign up to a closing statement that said AI should be “inclusive, transparent, ethical and safe”. A new AI arms race has begun, with the US and China vying for dominance and Europe trying to carve out its role.

The Trump administration, said Vance, intended to cement US leadership and ensure that the “most powerful AI systems are built in the US, with American-designed and manufactured chips”. In a jibe at Europe’s legislate-first approach, he said regulatory regimes had to “foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it”; the US would not tolerate foreign governments “tightening the screws on US companies”. Without naming China, Vance also warned against signing AI deals with an “authoritarian master”.

The vice-president was speaking days after the director of the US AI Safety Institute stood down, raising uncertainty over its future. Donald Trump has also revoked President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order calling for top AI companies to share information with the US government. The new US stance, says one academic, is a “180-degree turnaround” from Biden’s.