Rubio Tells G7 Allies AI Needs Industry-Led Partnerships, Not More Regulation

According to an account of his remarks published by Breaking The News, Rubio said the group needed "industry-led partnerships, not more regulation and unnecessary red tape." He also said G7 members shared an interest in protecting frontier AI models from "extraction and misuse." Crypto Briefing reported that he made the same argument in a social media post the same day, describing US leadership in the race toward superintelligent AI as central to American prosperity and security.

The remarks set out Washington's position at a time when other G7 governments are writing or enforcing their own AI rules. They also come as US domestic politics shifts: Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in last week's midterm elections, and Democratic leaders have promised investigations of large technology companies.

Rubio landed at Le Bourget airport outside Paris on Monday. In a post on X after arriving, he said the United States would focus on "real accountability at the UN" and an "innovation-first agenda" for the future of "Super Intelligence," according to Trend News Agency.

The meeting brings together foreign ministers from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, the Associated Press reported. France, which hosts the talks, has also invited Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to some sessions. The French Foreign Ministry said artificial intelligence would get its own meeting, separate from the session on support for Ukraine. Russia's war in Ukraine, the conflict with Iran and energy security are also on the agenda.

Allies are unsure how far the midterm results will change US policy. "The House and the Senate have changed leadership so it's very much a question of what the approach will be," Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand told reporters, according to the AP.

Rubio's position matches the administration's preference for bilateral technology agreements over multilateral rules. According to Crypto Briefing, Washington has signed a series of Technology Prosperity Deals covering joint research, semiconductor access and AI supply chains with the UK, South Korea, Japan and Sweden over the past 13 months. The latest, with Finland on October 29, focuses on AI and quantum technology.

This is the second time in five months that frontier AI governance has come up at the G7. At the leaders' summit in Évian in June, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis called for a US-led coalition of allies to shape AI rules and standards, CNBC reported at the time.

Rubio did not say on Monday what an industry-led framework for protecting frontier models would involve, or whether he wants it written into G7 commitments. The talks continue on Tuesday, and no joint statement on AI had been published by Monday afternoon.