The US government said on Monday it would further restrict artificial intelligence chip and technology exports, divvying up the world to keep advanced computing power in the US and among its allies while finding more ways to block China’s access.
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The new regulations will cap the number of AI chips that can be exported to most countries and allow unlimited access to US AI technology for America’s closest allies, while also maintaining a block on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The lengthy new rules unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration go beyond China and are aimed at helping the US keep its dominant status in AI by controlling it around the world.
“The US leads AI now – both AI development and AI chip design, and it’s critical that we keep it that way,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.
The regulations cap a four-year Biden administration effort to hobble China’s access to advanced chips that can enhance its military capabilities and seek to maintain US leadership in AI by closing loopholes and adding new guard rails to control the flow of chips and global development of AI.
The rules make it “hard for our strategic competitors to use smuggling and remote access to evade our export control,” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, while creating “incentives for our friends and partners around the world to use trusted vendors for advanced AI.”