The News
The US Department of Commerce announced updated export controls and restrictions on the sale of advanced computing chip models used for artificial intelligence.
Certain allied countries and partners will be exempt from the controls, a senior administration official said. Low volume chip orders, such as those placed by universities and research organizations, will also not require a license.
“This policy will help build a trusted technological ecosystem around the world and allow us to protect against the national security risks associated with AI,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. The rules “will help safeguard the most advanced AI technology and help ensure it stays out of the hands of our foreign adversaries, while we continue to broadly share the benefits with partner countries.”
US-based chipmaking giant Nvidia criticized the rules as “unprecedented and misguided” in a blog post Monday, arguing that they risked “squandering America’s hard-won technological advantage” by imposing excessive bureaucracy and stifling competition.
“While cloaked in the guise of an “anti-China” measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance US security,” the company’s vice president of government affairs wrote. “As the First Trump Administration demonstrated, America wins through innovation, competition and by sharing our technologies with the world — not by retreating behind a wall of government overreach.”