The next big fight over offshoring is playing out in Washington, and this time it involves artificial intelligence. The Biden administration, in its final weeks in office, is rushing to issue new regulations to try to ensure that the United States and its close allies have control over how artificial intelligence develops in the years to come.
The rules have touched off an intense fight between tech companies and the government, as well as among administration officials. The regulations, which could be issued as early as Friday, would dictate where American-made chips that are critical for A.I. could be shipped. Those rules would then help determine where the data centers that create A.I. would be built, with a preference for the United States and its allies.
The rules would allow most European countries, Japan and other close U.S. allies to make unfettered purchases of A.I. chips, while blocking two dozen adversaries, like China and Russia, from buying them. More than 100 other countries would face different quotas on the amount of A.I. chips they could receive from U.S. companies.
The regulations would also make it easier for A.I. chips to be sent to trusted American companies that run data centers, like Google and Microsoft, than to their foreign competitors. The rules would establish security procedures that data centers would have to follow to keep A.I. systems safe from cybertheft.
Artificial intelligence, which can answer questions, write code and create images, is expected to revolutionize the way countries fight wars, develop medicines and deliver scientific breakthroughs. Because of its potential power, U.S. officials want A.I. systems to be built in the United States or in allied countries – where they will have more say over what the systems do – rather than in countries that could share that technology with China or act in other ways contrary to U.S. national security.
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