The Biden administration on Monday issued strict rules governing how AI chips and models can be shared with foreign countries, aiming to establish a global framework that will guide how artificial intelligence grows. will spread around the world in the years to come.
Facing the rapid growth of AI power, the Biden administration said the rules were necessary to keep transformational technology within the control of the United States and its allies, and out of the hands of adversaries who could use it to increase their armed forces. cyberattacks and threaten the United States.
Tech companies have protested the new rules, saying they threaten their sales and the future prospects of the U.S. tech industry.
The rules place various limits on the number of AI chips companies can send to different countries, essentially dividing the world into three categories. The United States and 18 of its closest partners – including Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan – are exempt from any restrictions and can freely buy AI chips .
Countries already subject to a US arms embargo, such as China and Russia, will continue to face an existing ban on the purchase of AI chips.
All other countries – most of the world – will be subject to caps limiting the number of AI chips that can be imported, although countries and companies can increase this number by entering into special agreements with the US government. These rules could anger some foreign governments: Even countries that are close trading partners or military allies of the United States, such as Mexico, Switzerland, Poland or Israel, will face restrictions on their ability to purchase larger quantities of American AI products.
The rules aim to prevent China from obtaining the technology it needs to produce artificial intelligence from other countries, after the United States banned such sales to China in recent years.
But the regulations also have broader goals: making allied countries the place of choice for companies to build the world’s largest data centers, with the aim of keeping the most advanced AI models inside borders of the United States and its partners.
Governments around the world, particularly in the Middle East, have invested money to attract and build massive data centers, with the aim of becoming the next center of AI development.
Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters on Sunday that the rule would ensure that the infrastructure needed to train the most advanced artificial intelligence would be in the United States or under the jurisdiction of allies close, and that “this capacity will not be outsourced”. like chips, batteries and other industries that we had to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to bring back to earth.
Mr. Sullivan said the rule would provide “greater clarity to our international partners and industry,” while countering national security threats from malicious actors who could use “US technologies against us.”
It will be up to the Trump administration to decide whether to maintain the new rules or how to enforce them. On a call with reporters Sunday, Biden administration officials said the rules have bipartisan support and that they have been in consultation with the new administration about them.
Although Chinese companies have begun developing their own AI chips, the global market for these semiconductors is dominated by American companies, particularly Nvidia. This dominance has given the US government the ability to regulate the global flow of AI technology, by restricting exports from US companies.
Companies have protested the limitations, saying the restrictions could hamper harmless or even beneficial types of computing, anger U.S. allies, and ultimately push global buyers to buy non-U.S. products, like those made by China.
In a statement, Ned Finkle, Nvidia’s vice president of government affairs, called the rule “unprecedented and ill-advised” and said it “threatens to derail innovation and economic growth around the world.” “.
“Rather than mitigating any threat, Biden’s new rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the United States ahead,” he said. -he declared. Nvidia stock fell nearly 3% in pre-market trading on Monday.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said in a statement that the company was confident in its ability to “fully comply with the high security standards of this rule and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world who rely on We “.
In a letter to congressional leaders on Sunday seen by The New York Times, Jason Oxman, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, a group representing technology companies, called on Congress to step in and use its authority to rescind the action if the Trump administration has not done so.
John Neuffer, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, said his group was “deeply disappointed that a policy change of this magnitude and impact would be rushed days before a presidential transition and without any meaningful input from industry”.
“The stakes are high and the timing is tight,” added Mr. Neuffer.
The rules, which run to more than 200 pages, also establish a system in which companies that operate data centers, such as Microsoft and Google, can apply for special government accreditations.
In exchange for meeting certain security standards, these companies can then trade AI chips more freely around the world. Companies will still have to agree to keep 75% of their total AI computing power in the United States or allied countries, and not to locate more than 7% of their computing power in a single other country.
The rules also establish the first controls on AI model weights, the parameters unique to each model that determine how the artificial intelligence makes its predictions. Companies setting up data centers overseas will need to adopt security standards to protect this intellectual property and prevent adversaries from accessing it.
Governments facing restrictions can increase the number of AI chips they can freely import by signing agreements with the U.S. government, in which they agree to align with U.S. goals for AI protection .
Under the direction of the US government, Microsoft last year entered into a partnership agreement with an Emirati company, G42, in exchange for G42 removing Huawei equipment from its systems and taking other measures.
The Biden administration could issue more rules related to chips and AI in the coming days, including an executive order to encourage domestic energy production for data centers, and new rules to prevent chips more advanced to enter China, according to sources familiar with the matter. say the deliberations.
This latest rule follows an incident last year in which U.S. officials discovered that Huawei, the sanctioned Chinese telecommunications company, had obtained components for its AI chips made by a major Taiwanese chip company , in violation of US export controls.
The announcements are part of a series of new regulations the Biden administration is rushing to release ahead of the presidential change as it attempts to close loopholes and cement its legacy of combating China’s technological development . The administration has imposed new limits on exports of chipmaking equipment to China and other countries, proposed new restrictions on Chinese drones, added new Chinese companies to a military blacklist and rushed to finalize new subsidies for American chip manufacturing.
But the AI regulations released Monday appear to be among the most sweeping and consequential measures. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way scientists conduct research, the way companies divide tasks among their employees, and the way the military operates. Although AI has many beneficial uses, U.S. officials are increasingly concerned that it could enable the development of new weapons, help countries surveil dissidents and otherwise upend the global balance of power .
Jimmy Goodrich, senior adviser for technology analysis at the RAND Corporation, said the rules would create a framework to protect U.S. security interests while allowing companies to compete abroad. “They are also forward-looking, trying to preserve supply chains led by the United States and its allies before they are off-shored to the highest bidder,” he said.
