PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday there was a "need for rules" to govern artificial intelligence, in an apparent rebuff to US Vice-President J D Vance who had criticised excessive regulation.
"We need these rules for AI to move forward," Macron said at a Paris summit shortly after Vance spoke there. Macron insisted on the "need to continue advancing international governance" of the technology, after Vance blasted European efforts at regulation.
World leaders gathered on Tuesday for the second day and plenary session of the Paris summit on artificial intelligence, as US willingness to sign onto a statement championing sustainable AI remained in question. Hours after President Emmanuel Macron declared France was in the AI race and Europe was eager for business, representatives of nearly 100 countries including China, India and the US prepared to meet and determine if competing national interests could be reconciled.
US Vice-President J D Vance is leading the American delegation. Macron highlighted one difference on Monday night. When it comes to electricity, France would not adopt a "drill, baby, drill" approach, like US oil production policy, but instead tap its clean power so companies could "plug, baby, plug" to meet AI's voracious power needs, he said.
One topic of political alignment, however, was that 2025 was not the year to regulate AI anew.
US President Donald Trump has torn up his predecessor Joe Biden's AI guardrails and Europe has taken note. According to Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will announce on Tuesday a new AI strategy for the bloc that "will be a unique opportunity for Europe to accelerate, to simplify our regulations, to deepen the single market and to invest as well in computing capacities." SEE ALSO P7
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