The administration of President Joe Biden proposed a new control scheme designed to close loopholes around the export of AI models and advanced chips to countries such as China.

The proposed framework “builds on previous chip controls by thwarting smuggling, closing other loopholes, and raising AI security standards,” according to a fact sheet provided by the Biden administration.

“It is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world’s AI runs on American rails.”

The new Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion would allow 18 “trusted” nations unlimited access to US-based AI technology.

Companies in other nations would face caps on the chips they could import, according to the fact sheet.

Users outside of the 18 nations could purchase up to 50,000 GPUs per country. There would also be government-to-government deals that could increase the cap to 100,000 GPUs if their export control, renewable energy and technological security goals align with the US.

Companies could be able obtain up to 1,700 of the latest AI chips without needing special permission. Those GPUs would likely help meet orders by universities, research organisations and medical institutions “for clearly innocuous purposes” as opposed to building data centres.

Companies outside of the US will be required to have adequate physical and cybersecurity measures in place to obtain the licences.

The new policy, which includes a comment period, is set to take effect 120 days from publication (13 January), giving President-elect Donald Trump’s administration time to weigh in.

Reaction
Reacting to the proposal, a Nvidia representative stated in a blog “while cloaked in the guise of an ‘anti-China’ measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security”.

“The new rules would control technology worldwide, including tech that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware.”

Microsoft, which announced plans to build spend $80 billion on AI-enabled data centres, stated it would be able to adhere to the new policy.

“We’re confident we can comply fully with this rule’s high security standards and meet the technology needs of countries and customers around the world that rely on us,” stated Microsoft president Brad Smith.

In October 2023, the US imposed tighter controls on the sale of AI chips to China to close loopholes in rules imposed in 2022.