In its latest jab at Beijing, the US would empower companies such as Google and Microsoft to act as gatekeepers worldwide for highly sought-after access to artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two people familiar with the draft plan said.
Under the scheme, to be released as soon as this month, these companies would have to comply with strict requirements, including reporting key information to the US government and blocking Chinese access to AI chips. That would permit them to offer AI capabilities within the cloud overseas without a license, the sources said.
The new rules, some of whose details are being reported for the first time, show officials are scrambling in the waning days of US President Joe Biden’s administration to streamline the process for approving AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The US Department of Commerce declined to comment on the content and timing of the new regulations. Sources cautioned the administration’s plans might change.
Alphabet, Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The measure takes a page from a national security agreement Microsoft inked with the US government in April allowing it to provide AI technology to Emirati firm G42, the sources said.
Under the new draft rules, other companies beyond those with gatekeeper status would compete for licenses to import a smaller number of high-end Nvidia and AMD AI chips in each country, one of the sources said.
Nvidia, which designs the world’s most powerful AI chips, said it is ready to work with the administration on the rules. AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Exempted from the caps would be 19 allied countries such as the Netherlands, Japan and Taiwan, which would have unlimited access to the AI chips and the capability they provide, two of the sources said.
Outside the framework would be a list of embargoed countries, including Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela, which are already blocked from acquiring US AI semiconductors and would remain so.
However, the caps could upset some countries.
Geoffrey Gertz, former White House official and now a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, said a global program of country caps “would likely raise significant concerns from US partners and allies around the world, who are wary of the US acting as a unilateral arbiter on who gets to access advanced chips critical for AI.”
The US government is conducting a final review of an “Artificial Intelligence Diffusion” rule drafted by the US Commerce Department, a government posting said last week, indicating it might be closing in on publication. Three sources said the posting referred to the AI caps.
The rules build on a program unveiled in September that gives permission to pre-approved data centers abroad to receive AI chips without a license, two sources said.
To achieve that status, data centers must provide information about customers, business activities, access restrictions and cybersecurity.
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