Monument to Lafayette
By Dr. John Mullins, Associate Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship Management Practice, London Business School
We live in interesting moments and nothing more than those who follow following the recent visit to the American Vice-President in Europe and the speeches and interviews he delivered in Munich and Paris. In Munich, Vance used his first major discourse abroad as American vice-president to criticize European politicians, claiming that they controlled freedom of expression, lost authority over immigration and ignored freedom religious.
Difficult speech, plus a dose of “History 101”
Environmental declarations and messages were put on throughout the previous discourse of Vance at the AI action of AI in Paris on February 11, 2025, with a main emphasis on the opportunities that are presented and presented and A strongly spoken warning to be too careful about security. Vance noted that AI is a revolutionary technology with applications in economic innovation, job creation, national security and health care. Excessive regulations could suffocate innovation and benefit operators operators. Defenders of the Trump administration, he said for pro-growth policies and AI should remain free from ideological biases and not be used for authoritarian censorship.
The Vice-President’s speech made a pleasant detour, referring to the recent visit from Vance to Les Invalides where the sword of the Marquis de Lafayette was exhibited.
“It made me think of this country, France and, of course, my own country and the beautiful civilization that we built with weapons like this saber,” said Vance. “Dangerous weapons in bad hands, but which are incredible tools for freedom and prosperity in good hands.”
The modern symbolism of the iron fist in a velvet glove of the sword of Lafayette – Lafayette, the French nobleman and the military officer who volunteered in the continental army, serving under General George Washington – is perhaps To be of too great allegorical importance for American history to ignore, but more later.
Shock and fear
By putting aside the story for the moment, the story of Trump-Vance on the AI was clearly intended to awaken a feeling of shock and fear. First there were insurance: “AI will facilitate and make people more productive. This will not replace human beings. He will never replace human beings. And I think that too many leaders in the AI industry when they talk about this fear of replacing workers, I think they really missed the point. AI, we think, will make us more productive, more prosperous and more free. »»
Everything is very noble and encouraging, but fear has not yet come: “The United States of America is the leader of AI, and our administration plans to keep it so. The United States has all the components of the entire complete AI battery, including the advanced design of semiconductors, border algorithms and, of course, transformation applications, “said Vance to an audience composed of personalities Commercial and leading policies, including Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Guoqing, signaling, signaling the deep interest of Beijing to shape the global AI standards.
The shock (or perhaps the revelation of the iron fist) of Vance’s speech came in a sufficiently attractive way. “Just because we are the leader we want or have to go alone, of course. And let me be categorical about it. America wants to associate you with all of you, and we want to embark on the AI revolution before us with the spirit of openness and collaboration. »»
But then, by perhaps relying on the memories of his visit to Les Invalides, the Layfette sword flashed in a decisive way: “But to create this kind of confidence, we need international regulatory regimes that promote the Creation of AI technology rather than strangling it. And we need our European friends in particular to turn to this new border with optimism rather than an apprehension. »»
What followed turned out to be a paradigm of the logic of Silicon Valley. The laws will be in place in the United States, said Vance, but they will be there to keep large technologies, small technologies and other developers on a “playground” (no strangulation!). An “AI action plan” has been being developed which has taken note of “certain foreign governments” and their plans to “tighten the screws on American technological companies with international imprints”. “Now America cannot and will not accept this, and we think it is a terrible error, not only for the United States of America, but for your own countries.”
Small? Some countries are to turn
More shock was to follow, on Monday, February 17, the media was full of striking warnings to the British government. “The giants of Google and Elon Musk X technology have warned that the new online security laws of Great Britain could force global companies to reconsider their presence in the United Kingdom due to high costs of compliance and exceed regulatory “, reported Yahoo! Financereferring to Online security actwhich was adopted under the government of Rishi Sunak and which imposed strict rules requiring that the main platforms introduce age verification and stop harmful content.
If we could label these tactics THE Art of agreement, Or The art of war,, Vance’s difficult rhetoric has produced a rapid response from the British government, which now reports that the United Kingdom could be open to the modification of the law if it becomes a collision point in trade negotiations. UK PLC and the British government Clearly listened to Mr. Vance. UK The Ministry of Science and Technology said that its IA security instituteThe world’s first world would focus on the “serious risks of AI with security implications” and would change its name.
Great Britain is not the only country in a hurry to make a flip-flop. The speech of the American vice-president produced an equally fast response in China. On Monday, February 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping met some of the country’s best entrepreneurs, including Jack Ma d’Alibaba, as Beijing, sought to invigorate private companies and generate stronger economic growth.
MA was a most important victim of Beijing’s technological repression several years ago, and its attendance at the recent summit marked a clear signal that the most famous entrepreneur in China had been rehabilitated after four years in the political desert. In addition, Xi signals the desire for business leaders such as MA to grasp the kingdoms of Chinese technological power once again which, over the past decade, has produced leading companies such as Tiktok and the -WeChat Form.
Lessons in recent history
Mr. Vance would be perfectly aware of the fact that China is in the first three Worlds for venture capital investment in key technologies associated with AI and automatic learning. The speed and development relatively low cost of In depthThe latest model of AI in large language, which has achieved performances comparable to the US rival Openai, took the world in time to assault and has wiped billions of market valuations for companies such as NVIDIA.
For most Americans, and perhaps also for Mr. Vance, it is believed that American leadership in advanced technologies is so rooted that it is unassailable. However, America has only to examine its business history to remember the lessons of the jungle. For example, one of the most expensive errors in the history of technology was born when Intel rejected the original iPhone on the grounds that they thought it would not be profitable and that the price was too low. When Apple continued to sell iphones of 2.3 billion, Intel was left to look at side lines, tightening its sides raised in sorrow.
The concentration is important
Vance concluded his Paris speech by urging the public to concentrate and “catch lightning in a bottle”, reminding everyone, it must rather be said about yourself, “than the very future of the” project ” That Lafayette and the American the founders began to create ”was at stake.
And vance is right of course, the concentration is important. But there was an essential element that lacked in the speech of the American vice -president – “competition”. Of course, the threat of competition has strongly resonated throughout Vance’s speech, but the idea that the United States is the leader of AI, having all the components through the “complete AI battery” , suggests that an elementary error could be about to be made. If Deepseek can appear from nowhere, and China quickly takes steering positions in fields as diverse as chemicals, electric vehicles and the pharmacy, then its leadership in AI can only be a step.
Borrow from the lexicon of Silicon Valley,, The position of the United States on AI is “non-trivial” but perhaps more “antifragile” that always dominant and resilient. So let’s see what is happening at the time of Trump 2.0 and Mr. Vance: their confidence will bring the day, or the black swans more inspired by technology will they betray their convictions.
Let’s look at this Flash Lafayette sword a little more!
A award -winning teacher and one of the main opinion leaders in the world in entrepreneurship, John Mullins Bring 20 years of executive experience to his teaching and research in high -growing retail companies, including two companies he founded and that he has made public. He is the author of several best -selling books with his most recent, Break the rules! The six counter-conventional mentalities of entrepreneurs who can help anyone to change the world,, Place in mentalities that allow world class entrepreneurs to challenge hypotheses, overcome obstacles, to mitigate risks and sometimes to change the world.
