Tech group urges US to halt rule that might restrict world entry to AI chips

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) – A expertise business group on Tuesday urged President Joe Biden’s administration to chorus from issuing a last-minute rule that might management world entry to AI chips, warning the restrictions would jeopardize U.S. management in synthetic intelligence.

The Data Expertise Trade Council, representing firms like Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta (NASDAQ:META), stated the rule, which might come out as quickly as Friday, would place arbitrary constraints on U.S. firms’ capacity to promote computing techniques abroad and cede the worldwide market to opponents.

Reuters reported unique particulars final month on the Commerce Division’s plan for approving world AI chip exports whereas additionally stopping unhealthy actors from accessing them. A key intention of the restrictions is to maintain AI from supercharging China’s navy capabilities.

In a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ITI CEO Jason Oxman criticized the administration’s “insistence” on publishing the rule within the last days of Joe Biden’s presidency. Donald Trump might be inaugurated Jan. 20.

“Dashing a consequential and complicated rule to completion might have important adversarial penalties,” Oxman stated within the Jan. 7 letter, a duplicate of which was obtained by Reuters.

Whereas ITI appreciates the dedication to nationwide safety, the letter stated, “the potential dangers to U.S. world management in AI are actual and must be taken critically.”

The group requested that any such controls be issued as proposed rulemaking, moderately than a rule, given the numerous geopolitical and financial implications.

Neither the Commerce Division nor the White Home instantly responded to requests for remark.

Trade opposition to the anticipated rule has change into more and more blunt and public.

The Semiconductor Trade Affiliation issued a press release on Monday night time. And on Sunday, Ken Glueck, government vp at Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), stated in a weblog put up that moderately than goal actions of concern, the rule “drops the Mom of All Laws on the business cloud business, regulating… almost all business cloud computing globally for the primary time in historical past.”

He stated the “Export Management Framework for Synthetic Intelligence Diffusion,” because the draft rule is titled, “will go down as some of the harmful to ever hit the U.S. expertise business.”