The United States and the United Kingdom have refused to sign a declaration on the safe, secure and trustworthy development of artificial intelligence (AI). The declaration, signed by about 60 nations at the AI Action Summit in Paris, urged international cooperation to guarantee the responsible use of AI technology.
The US and UK’s abstention from the announcement has surprised world leaders and tech industry CEOs. US Vice President JD Vance, speaking on behalf of the Trump administration, was clear that the US would continue to dominate the field of artificial intelligence, saying: “The Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful artificial intelligence systems are built in the US, with American-designed and manufactured chips.”
Vance’s speech was interpreted as a shift from the Biden administration’s policy, which had previously embraced global cooperation on AI governance. The US representative expressed concern about the terminology used in the statement, specifically: “enhancing international cooperation to promote coordination in international governance.”
The UK government was also concerned, with a government source saying the language of the statement was “too restrictive”.
Instead, Europe is trying to carve out a bigger space in AI activity to prevent its dependence on the US and China. European leaders and policymakers at the AI Action Summit said they would invest around €200 billion in computer clusters and data centres to boost the region's AI activity.
The refusal to sign the declaration comes as the competition between the US, China and Europe for dominance in artificial intelligence heats up. release of a cheap artificial intelligence model last week from the relatively new Chinese DeepSeek caused a frenzy in Silicon Valley.
The US government's "America First" approach to developing artificial intelligence has raised concerns in the global community. Vance's distrust of working with "authoritarian regimes" is fueling geopolitical competition over the future of AI technology.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
