Feb. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President JD Vance urged European officials to go easy on regulating artificial intelligence and allow the tech companies room to grow the industry during his first major overseas speech on Tuesday.

At the AI Action Summit in Paris, Vance sounded off on complaints made by some U.S. big tech firms that Europe was being too heavy-handed in reining in their companies and strangling them in regulations.

"We want to embark on the AI revolution before us with the spirit of openness and collaboration, but to create the kind of trust we need international regulatory regimes that foster creation," Vance said.

"I like to see that deregulation flavor making its way into a lot of conversations."

Vance said European tech leaders should be concentrating more on embracing AI and what it can do rather than worrying about the threat it imposes.

In echoing President Donald Trump's "America First" policies, Vance said the United States would defend its domestic tech companies from having its innovations stolen and prevent political enemies from gaining the technology.

"We will safeguard American AI and chip technologies from theft and misuse, work with our allies and partners to strengthen and extend these protections, and close pathways to adversaries attaining AI capabilities that threaten all of our people," Vance said.

Vance promised the Trump administration would fight against opponents using AI for propaganda reasons and the military.

"Some authoritarian regimes have stolen and used AI to strengthen their military intelligence and surveillance capabilities, capture foreign data, and create propaganda to under other nations' national security," Vance said. "I want to be clear, this administration will block such efforts, full stop."