Biden administration aims to restrict China's access to AI software - Reuters
Archive photo: US President Joe Biden (Getty Images)
The administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing to restrict China's access to advanced artificial intelligence models, informs Reuters.
The US Department of Commerce is considering the possibility of adopting new regulatory measures to restrict the export of proprietary artificial intelligence models or closed-source artificial intelligence models, whose software and training data are kept secret.
The source states that these actions will complement a series of measures taken over the past two years to block the export of artificial intelligence chips to China. The US is seeking to slow Beijing's development of advanced technologies that could be used for military purposes.
Currently, nothing prevents American giants in the field of artificial intelligence, such as Microsoft, Alphabet, or Google DeepMind, which have developed some of the most powerful closed-source artificial intelligence models, from selling them to practically anyone in the world without government oversight.
Researchers from the public and private sectors are concerned that adversaries of the US could use models that analyze vast amounts of text and images to generalize information and create content, for conducting aggressive cyberattacks or even for developing potent biological weapons.
How export control will work
Reuters reports that to develop export control over artificial intelligence models, the United States may turn to a threshold based on the computational power required to train the model.
Once this level is reached, the developer must notify the Department of Commerce of their AI model development plans and provide test results.
Sources indicate that this computational power threshold may serve as the basis for determining which AI models will be subject to export restrictions.
United States seeks to halt China's development
Washington has been pursuing a policy of restraining Beijing's technological advancement for several years now, fearing that China could use chips for the production of high-quality weaponry.
It was reported last year that the US would take new steps to prevent American semiconductor manufacturers from selling chips to China bypassing government restrictions.
And in March, the Biden administration reviewed restrictions on supplying China with American artificial intelligence microchips and chip-making production tools.
