The establishment broadcast their shock at the U.S./Russia meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday, with a New York Times headline that read: "U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations."
In remarks from the Oval Office on February 13th, President Trump raised the possibility that the military budgets of the United States, along with those of Russia and China, might be cut in half.
At the final day of the Paris international AI conference hosted by French President Macron, Vice President J.D. Vance basically told the world, “The era of censorship and control is over. America is back.”
As foreign leaders and eurocrats like Canada’s Justin Trudeau, UN Sec. Gen. Guterres, and other stuffed shirts like the EU’s von der Leyen sat there swallowing their own venom, V.P. Vance made you proud to be American.
Echoing President Trump when he gave the oligarchs at Davos an uplifting kick in 2020, V.P. Vance brought the new American Revolution’s hurricane force winds to the stuffy white plastic halls of dying europedom. The summit sought to establish “global governance” of AI development. Vance’s defiant address rejected that framework entirely on behalf of the now sovereign United States.
This wasn’t the neo-liberal hypocritical spittle we have seen for decades. His speech was based on true American moral courage, political freedom, and our unrelenting commitment to economic development and scientific excitement.
The highlight of the speech was the contrast between a real American economic perspective and the surveillance economy inspired by European-esque police-state regimes which dominate AI propaganda.
V.P. Vance instead said:
“But right now, AI cannot take off unless the world builds the energy infrastructure to support it.
“Now it’s my view that tech innovation over the last twenty years has often conjured images of smart people staring at computer screens, engineering in the world of bits. But the AI economy will primarily depend on and transform the world of atoms. Now at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine or Bessemer steel, but it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball, nor will it occur if we allow AI to become dominated by massive players looking to use the tech to censor or control users’ thoughts.
“And I’d ask if you step back a moment and ask yourself, who is most aggressively demanding that we, meaning political leaders gathered here today, do the most aggressive regulation? It is very often the people who already have an incumbent advantage in the market. And when a massive incumbent comes to us asking us for safety regulations, we’d ought to ask whether that safety regulation is for the benefit of our people or whether it’s for the benefit of the incumbent.”
He concluded with a reference to the joint efforts by the French and Americans to win the American Revolutionary War, which unleashed a new era of political freedom. He described holding Marquis de Lafayette’s sword the day before and said:
“It got me thinking of this country, France, and, of course, of my own country, and of the beautiful civilization that we have built together with weapons like that saber. Weapons that are dangerous in the wrong hands, but are incredible tools for liberty and prosperity in the right hands.
“I couldn’t help but think of the conference today. If we choose the wrong approach on other things that could be conceived of as dangerous, things like AI, and choose to hold ourselves back, it will alter not only our GDP or the stock market, but the very future of the project that Lafayette and the American founders set off to create. Now this doesn’t mean, of course, that all concerns about safety go out the window, but focus matters. And we must focus now on the opportunity to catch lightning in a bottle, unleash our most brilliant innovators, and use AI to improve the well-being of our nations and their peoples. With great confidence, I can say it is an opportunity that the Trump administration will not squander, and we hope everyone convened here today feels exactly the same.”
The fun has just begun. This is the start of week four. There are 204 more weeks in President Trump’s second term. What will you do?
Some of the main points are excerpted below for convenience:
“...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. And finally,...the Trump administration will maintain a pro-worker growth path for AI so it can be a potent tool for job creation in the United States…”
“AI, I really believe, will facilitate and make people more productive. It is not going to replace human beings. It will never replace human beings. And I think too many of the leaders in the AI industry, when they talk about this fear of replacing workers, I think they really missed the point.
“AI, we believe, is going to make us more productive, more prosperous, and more free…”
“Now this administration will not be the one to snuff out the startups and the grad students producing some of the most groundbreaking applications of artificial intelligence. Instead, our laws will keep big tech, little tech, and all other developers on a level playing field…”
“The US innovators of all sizes already know what it’s like to deal with onerous international rules. Many of our most productive tech companies are forced to deal with the EU’s Digital Services Act and the massive regulations it created about taking down content and policing so-called misinformation.
“And, of course, we want to ensure the Internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the Internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation… Is this really the future that we want?”
“Ladies and gentlemen, I think the answer for all of us should be no…”
“I appreciated the comments of so many at the conference because they recognize that we can’t – we stand now at the frontier of an AI industry that is hungry for reliable power and high-quality semiconductors. Yet too many of our friends are deindustrializing on the one hand and chasing reliable power out of their nations and off their grids with the other. The AI future is not going to be won by hand-wringing about safety.
“It will be won by building from reliable power plants to the manufacturing facilities that can produce the chips of the future. At a personal level, what excites me most about AI is that it is grounded in the real and the physical economy. The success of the sector isn’t just a matter of smart people sitting in front of a computer screen and coding. It depends on those who work with their hands, even as robotics will change our factories…”
“But right now, AI cannot take off unless the world builds the energy infrastructure to support it.
“Now it’s my view that tech innovation over the last twenty years has often conjured images of smart people staring at computer screens, engineering in the world of bits. But the AI economy will primarily depend on and transform the world of atoms. Now at this moment, we face the extraordinary prospect of a new industrial revolution, one on par with the invention of the steam engine or Bessemer steel, but it will never come to pass if overregulation deters innovators from taking the risks necessary to advance the ball, nor will it occur if we allow AI to become dominated by massive players looking to use the tech to censor or control users’ thoughts.
“And I’d ask if you step back a moment and ask yourself, who is most aggressively demanding that we, meaning political leaders gathered here today, do the most aggressive regulation? It is very often the people who already have an incumbent advantage in the market. And when a massive incumbent comes to us asking us for safety regulations, we’d ought to ask whether that safety regulation is for the benefit of our people or whether it’s for the benefit of the incumbent.”
“...the Trump administration will ensure that AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias and never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech. We can trust our people to think, to consume information, to develop their own ideas, and to debate with one another in the open marketplace of ideas…
“Should a deal seem too good to be true, just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley. If you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product…”
“Finally, this administration wants to be very clear about one last point.
“We will always center American workers in our AI policy. We refuse to view AI as a purely disruptive technology that will inevitably automate away our labor force. We believe and we will fight for policies that ensure that AI is going to make our workers more productive, and we expect that they will reap the rewards with higher wages, better benefits, and safer and more prosperous communities.
“From law to medicine, manufacturing, the most immediate applications of AI almost all involve supplementing, not replacing the work being done by Americans…”
“The Trump administration will guarantee American workers a seat at the table, and we’re very proud of that…”
“Yesterday, as I was touring Les Invalides with General Gravett with my three kids, he was kind enough to show me the sword that belonged to America’s dearest international friend from our own revolution, of course, the Marquis de Lafayette. He let me hold the sword, but, of course, he made me put on the white gloves beforehand.
“And it got me thinking of this country, France, and, of course, of my own country, and of the beautiful civilization that we have built together with weapons like that saber. Weapons that are dangerous in the wrong hands, but are incredible tools for liberty and prosperity in the right hands.
“I couldn’t help but think of the conference today. If we choose the wrong approach on other things that could be conceived of as dangerous, things like AI, and choose to hold ourselves back, it will alter not only our GDP or the stock market, but the very future of the project that Lafayette and the American founders set off to create. Now this doesn’t mean, of course, that all concerns about safety go out the window, but focus matters, And we must focus now on the opportunity to catch lightning in a bottle, unleash our most brilliant innovators, and use AI to improve the well-being of our nations and their peoples. With great confidence, I can say it is an opportunity that the Trump administration will not squander, and we hope everyone convened here today feels exactly the same.”
The establishment broadcast their shock at the U.S./Russia meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday, with a New York Times headline that read: "U.S. and Russia Pursue Partnership in a Head-Spinning Shift in Relations."
In remarks from the Oval Office on February 13th, President Trump raised the possibility that the military budgets of the United States, along with those of Russia and China, might be cut in half.
We dive deep into current events: peace negotiations in Ukraine and the Middle East, law school indoctrination, audits by Elon Musk, and upcoming Supreme Court cases.
Dan Milmo
