By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government said on Monday it would further restrict exports of artificial intelligence technology and chips, dividing the world to keep advanced computing power in the United States and among its allies, while seeking more ways to block China's access.
The new regulations will limit 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 maintaining a blockade on exports to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The sweeping new rules unveiled in the final days of outgoing President Joe Biden's administration go beyond China and aim to help the United States maintain its dominant status in ai by controlling it around the world.
“The United States now leads in ai, both in the development and design of ai chips, and it is critical that we continue to do so,” said US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The regulations cap a four-year effort by the Biden administration to hinder 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 barriers to control the flow of chips. and the global development of ai. .
While it is unclear how the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will enforce the new rules, the two administrations share similar views on the competitive threat from China. The regulation will go into effect 120 days after its publication, giving the Trump administration time to weigh in.
New limits will be imposed on advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), which are used to power the data centers needed to train ai models. Most are made by Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia (NASDAQ:), while Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) also sells ai chips. Nvidia and AMD fell between 2% and 3% in pre-market trading on Monday.
Major cloud service providers, such as Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Google (NASDAQ:), and amazon (NASDAQ:), will be able to apply for global authorizations to build data centers.
Once approved, cloud providers would no longer need export licenses for ai chips, allowing them to build data centers in countries that cannot import enough chips due to quotas imposed by the United States.
Shares of all three companies fell about 1% in premarket trading.
To earn a seal of approval, licensed businesses must meet strict conditions and restrictions, including security requirements, reporting requirements, and a plan or track record of respecting human rights.
Until now, the Biden administration had imposed broad restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and the equipment to produce them, updating controls annually to tighten restrictions and catch countries at risk of diverting technology to China.
NVIDIA FEARS 'Overreach'
Because the rules alter the landscape for ai chips and data centers around the world, powerful industry voices criticized the plan even before it was published.
Nvidia on Monday called the rule “a radical overreach” and said the White House would clamp down on “technology already available in leading gaming PCs and consumer hardware.” Data center provider Oracle (NYSE:) argued earlier this month that the rules would hand “the majority of the global ai and GPU market to our Chinese competitors.”
The rules impose worldwide licensing requirements for certain chips, with exceptions, and also establish controls for what are known as “model weights” of more advanced “closed-weight” ai models. Model weights help determine decision making in machine learning and are typically the most valuable elements of an ai model.
The regulations divide the world into three levels. About 18 countries, including Japan, Britain, South Korea and the Netherlands, will essentially be exempt from the rules. About 120 more countries, including Singapore, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, will face per-country limits. And countries with arms embargoes like Russia, China and Iran will be banned from receiving the technology altogether.
Additionally, US-based vendors that are likely to receive global authorizations, such as AWS and Microsoft, will be able to deploy only 50% of their total ai computing power outside the United States, with no more than 25% outside the countries. Level 1 and no more. 7% in a single country that does not belong to Tier 1.
ai has the potential to increase access to healthcare, education, and food, among other benefits, but it can also help develop biological and other weapons, support cyberattacks, and assist with surveillance and other abuses. human rights.
“The United States needs to be prepared for rapid increases in ai capabilities in the coming years, which could have a transformative impact on the economy and on our national security,” said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. .
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,’https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
