Vice President JD Vance told world leaders in Paris that AI must be ‘free from ideological bias,’ and that American tech won’t be a censorship tool. (Credit: Reuters)
FRANCE – Without a doubt, this week’s artificial intelligence summit in Paris was to showcase how Europe intends to catch up with the U.S. and China, the leaders in the field. But that’s not all.
The summit was also aimed at bringing together the major players in this new technology. But in reality, it looks more like a clash of civilizations, cultures and national priorities. In simple terms, the main players are at substantial odds with each other.
Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday presented the keynote address at the plenary session. The Trump administration “will ensure that American AI technology continues to be the gold standard worldwide,” he said. American AI tech is “the partner of choice for others, foreign countries, and certainly businesses, as they expand their own use of AI.” The administration also wants AI to create jobs.
Avoiding “excessive regulation” and to “remain free of ideological bias [and] not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” are other key goals, Vance said.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance delivers a speech during the plenary session of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, Feb. 11, 2025. (REUTERS/Benoit Tessier / Reuters)
But when you contrast the different players, chasms appear.
“The U.S. is the freewheeling innovator, prioritizing speed and market-driven growth,” Pascal Bornet, an award-winning expert and pioneer in AI and automation told FOX Business. “China is the strategic state planner, channeling national resources into AI as a matter of economic and geopolitical priority.”
However, it is well known that authoritarian China doesn’t embrace free speech and essentially does use censorship when it feels it’s necessary.
Bornet epitomizes Europe as “the careful regulator, focused on creating a human-centric AI ecosystem that prioritizes ethics and individual rights.”
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French President Emmanuel Macron announced the country would make investments of 109 billion euros ($112 billion) in infrastructure, and to make France a strategic AI power. That will include the creation of data centers and the largest supercomputer in Europe and a one-gigawatt campus. The latter being a 50-billion-euro France-UAE joint effort.
Still, France and much of Europe remains behind the eight ball when it comes to innovation.
“Europe needs to be more aggressive in its research and deployment,” Nuria Oliver, director of ethical AI company ELLIS Alicante in Spain told FOX Business. That’s what Macron is attempting to do with the epic announcement at the summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the country would make investments of 109 billion euros ($112 billion) in infrastructure, and to make France a strategic AI power. (TERESA SUAREZ/POOL/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, the culture in many European countries is to avoid risk-taking, Oliver said.
“In the southern part of Europe, taking risks is de-incentivized,” she said. Basically, the failure in those countries has high social and financial penalties. But she noted that there’s more risk-taking in the Nordic countries such as Finland and Sweden.
Contrast that anti-risk approach with America embracing it. “The U.S. has attractive bankruptcy laws, Oliver said. “That is not the case in some other countries and that creates a barrier.”
That barrier also helps explain why there are zero mega-sized consumer tech companies in Europe. The big ones are all based in either the U.S. or China, and include Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent.
Bornet said Europe is “seriously behind,” and that not one of the top 25 AI research institutions is in Europe, and Europe holds 786 AI-related patents compared to almost 16,000 in the U.S.
“China is the strategic state planner, channeling national resources into AI as a matter of economic and geopolitical priority,” said Pascal Bornet. (Photo credit: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Sweden, Finland and the U.K. all have a tech sector, but it’s limited, Raj Venkatesan, a professor at the Darden Graduate School of Business and an AI expert, told FOX Business. “They don’t have a global platform,” he said. “The U.S. and China have a global presence.”
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Nevertheless, Bornet sees one of Europeans’ soft spots as a possible winner. “By being the global standard-setter for ethical AI through rigorous regulations, they could attract companies and users who value trust and transparency,” he said. “It’s a long shot, but potentially a brilliant one.”