WASHINGTON: A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill slow Wednesday that would make it easier for the Biden administration to impose export controls on artificial intelligence models to protect prized American technology from bad actors abroad.
The bill, sponsored by House Republicans Michael McCaul and John Molenaar and Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Susan Wild, would also give the Commerce Department explicit authority to prohibit Americans from working with foreigners to develop artificial intelligence systems that pose a risk to U.S. national security.
The legislation aims to protect any future AI export regulations from legal challenges. It comes as concerns grow that U.S. adversaries could utilize these models, which mine massive amounts of text and images to summarize information and generate content, to launch aggressive cyber attacks and even create powerful biological weapons.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the United States is poised to open a modern front in its efforts to protect U.S. artificial intelligence from China and Russia, with initial plans to impose export controls on the most advanced, proprietary AI models.
But under current U.S. law, it is much more complex for the Department of Commerce, which oversees U.S. export policy, to regulate the export of open-source artificial intelligence models that can be downloaded for free.
If approved, the measure would remove obstacles to regulating open-source AI exports contained in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and also give the Department of Commerce explicit authority to regulate AI systems.
China relies heavily on many open source models developed in the West, such as Meta Platforms’ “Llama” series.
In March, Chinese state media quoted the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, a high-level research laboratory, as saying that most of China’s indigenous AI models were actually built using Llama Meta models, posing a key challenge to China’s AI development market.
In November 2023, 01.AI, one of the most famed AI unicorns in China founded by former Google executive Lee Kai-fu, faced severe backlash after some AI engineers discovered that its AI model Yi -34B was built on the lam Meta system.
This also came after Microsoft (MSFT.O) announced it would invest $1.5 billion in UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42, giving G42 permission to utilize Microsoft cloud services to run AI applications.
The agreement, which included a security agreement with the US and UAE governments, was revealed despite growing concerns in the US over deepening relations between China and Gulf states, including the UAE.
The bill, sponsored by House Republicans Michael McCaul and John Molenaar and Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Susan Wild, would also give the Commerce Department explicit authority to prohibit Americans from working with foreigners to develop artificial intelligence systems that pose a risk to U.S. national security.
The legislation aims to protect any future AI export regulations from legal challenges. It comes as concerns grow that U.S. adversaries could utilize these models, which mine massive amounts of text and images to summarize information and generate content, to launch aggressive cyber attacks and even create powerful biological weapons.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that the United States is poised to open a modern front in its efforts to protect U.S. artificial intelligence from China and Russia, with initial plans to impose export controls on the most advanced, proprietary AI models.
But under current U.S. law, it is much more complex for the Department of Commerce, which oversees U.S. export policy, to regulate the export of open-source artificial intelligence models that can be downloaded for free.
If approved, the measure would remove obstacles to regulating open-source AI exports contained in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and also give the Department of Commerce explicit authority to regulate AI systems.
China relies heavily on many open source models developed in the West, such as Meta Platforms’ “Llama” series.
In March, Chinese state media quoted the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, a high-level research laboratory, as saying that most of China’s indigenous AI models were actually built using Llama Meta models, posing a key challenge to China’s AI development market.
In November 2023, 01.AI, one of the most famed AI unicorns in China founded by former Google executive Lee Kai-fu, faced severe backlash after some AI engineers discovered that its AI model Yi -34B was built on the lam Meta system.
This also came after Microsoft (MSFT.O) announced it would invest $1.5 billion in UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42, giving G42 permission to utilize Microsoft cloud services to run AI applications.
The agreement, which included a security agreement with the US and UAE governments, was revealed despite growing concerns in the US over deepening relations between China and Gulf states, including the UAE.
