The U.S. government said Monday it might further restrict exports of chips and artificial intelligence technology and divide the world to maintain advanced computing power within the U.S. and amongst its allies while finding more ways to limit China's access block.
The recent rules will limit the variety of AI chips that will be exported to most countries and provides America's closest allies unlimited access to U.S. AI technology, while also placing a ban on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea is maintained.
The lengthy recent rules, unveiled in the ultimate days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration, transcend China and aim to assist the U.S. maintain its dominance in AI by controlling it globally.
“The US is now a leader in AI – both in AI development and AI chip design, and it is critical that it stays that way,” said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
The regulations cap the Biden administration's four-year effort to make it harder for China to access advanced chips that may improve its military capabilities and to try to keep up U.S. leadership in AI by closing loopholes and setting recent guardrails to manage the Introduce chip flow and the worldwide development of AI.
While it’s unclear how President-elect Donald Trump's recent administration will implement the brand new rules, the 2 governments share similar views on the competitive threat posed by China. The order is scheduled to take effect 120 days after it’s published, giving the Trump administration time to reply.
New limits are being set for advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) used to power data centers for training AI models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia, while Advanced Micro Devices also sells AI chips.
Major cloud service providers equivalent to Microsoft, Google And Amazonwill give you the option to use for global approvals to construct data centers, a key part of latest rules that exempt their projects from country quotas for AI chips.
To receive a seal of approval, authorized firms must adhere to strict conditions and restrictions, including security requirements.
Previously, the Biden administration had imposed broad restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to make them, updating controls annually to tighten restrictions and goal countries liable to the technology being diverted to China .
Nvidia fears “overwhelm”
As the foundations change the landscape for AI chips and data centers all over the world, influential industry voices criticized the plan even before it was released.
Nvidia on Monday called the rule a “sweeping overreach” and said the White House would “take action against technology already available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware.” Data center providers oracle argued earlier this month that the foundations would “leave most of the global AI and GPU market to our Chinese competitors.”
The rules set global licensing requirements for certain chips, with exceptions, and in addition set controls for so-called “model weights” of essentially the most advanced “closed” AI models. Model weights aid in machine learning decision making and are generally the most beneficial elements of an AI model.
The regulation divides the world into three levels. About 18 countries, including Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Netherlands, will essentially be exempt from the foundations. Country restrictions apply to around 120 other countries, including Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And countries subject to an arms embargo, equivalent to Russia, China and Iran, are banned from receiving the technology entirely.
Additionally, U.S.-headquartered vendors expected to receive global approvals, equivalent to AWS and Microsoft, may only deploy 50% of their total AI computing power outside the United States, not more than 25% outside Tier 1 countries, and not more than 7% in a single non-Tier 1 country.
AI has the potential to enhance access to healthcare, education and food, amongst other advantages, but may contribute to the event of biological and other weapons, support cyberattacks and assist in surveillance and other human rights abuses.
“The U.S. must be prepared for a rapid expansion of AI capabilities in the coming years that could have transformative impacts on the economy and our national security,” said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
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