The Biden administration today announced a bold and controversial new export control plan designed to prevent advanced chips artificial intelligence Like falling into the hands of opponents, they idealize themselves. China,
The administration's new “AI proliferation rule” divides the world into countries that are allowed relatively unfettered access to America's most advanced AI silicon and algorithms, and those that will require special licenses to access the technology. The rule, which will be enforced by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, also seeks to restrict the movement of the most powerful AI models for the first time.
“The United States now leads the world in both AI development and AI chip design, and it is vital that we keep it that way,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said ahead of today's announcement.
The list of trusted countries includes the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan.
The rule states that companies from other countries that are not subject to arms control will be able to obtain up to 1,700 of the latest AI chips without special permission. They will be able to apply for a special license to obtain more chips, build very large-scale datacenters using American technology, or gain access to the most powerful closed model “VET” created by American firms. Companies will need adequate physical and cyber security to obtain a license.
Supply chain activities including the design, manufacturing and storage of chips will be exempted from the rule. Nor will the rules prohibit open source ai models Like the Lama of Meta, says the administration.
Countries with arms embargoes such as China, Iran and North Korea are already banned from receiving advanced chips. The new rule will restrict their access to advanced models for the first time.
“Semiconductors that provide power [AI] And model weights, as we all know, are a dual-use technology,” Raimondo said before the announcement. “They are used in many commercial applications, but also by our adversaries to run nuclear simulations, develop bioweapons, and It can also be used to advance our forces.”
However, this rule will certainly spark controversy, as it could impact international sales of AI at a critical moment for the industry. This comes just a week before Trump's inauguration. The ruling sets a 120-day consultation period, meaning Donald Trump's administration will be expected to listen to input, perhaps modify the rule, and then implement it.
NVIDIAThe World leading manufacturer of AI chipsThe rule was called “unprecedented and misleading.” a blog post“Under the guise of an ‘anti-China’ measure, these rules will do nothing to enhance US security. Rather than mitigate any threats, the new Biden rules will only weaken America's global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept America ahead.
America is already Limits exports of advanced AI chips to ChinaA major geopolitical rival, but companies there are able to create cutting algorithms using computer clusters located in other countries. Under the new rule, China will not be able to manufacture so-called frontier AI models in other countries affected by the rule.