J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation

Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio, is a strong skeptic of regulating artificial intelligence. He’s also in favor of reining in Big Tech, companies he says have grown so powerful that they stymie smaller companies’ ability to succeed.

That seeming contradiction could play a role in shaping the Trump administration’s stance on A.I. policy if former President Donald J. Trump is elected later this year. Mr. Vance — the Republican pick for vice president and a former tech investor — has pushed for looser regulations and has vocally supported open-source A.I., the public release of underlying code that can be copied and altered to create new technology.

But he has also broken with his party to support Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, for her aggressive stance on antitrust action against Big Tech. And he has strong ties with some of the tech industry’s most powerful backers, many of whom fund smaller A.I. start-ups.

Last week, during a committee hearing on privacy and A.I., Mr. Vance accused Big Tech companies of predicting that A.I. could destroy humanity in order to solicit new regulations that only the largest companies could comply with.

Those regulations would “entrench the tech incumbents that we actually have, and make it actually harder for new entrants to create the innovation that’s going to power the next generation of American growth” and jobs, Mr. Vance said.

Mr. Trump has not said whom he would ask to lead the administration’s policymaking on A.I if he reclaims the presidency in November. But Mr. Vance could heavily influence the growing industry.