Biden administration proposes sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips

With a week left in office, President Joe Biden has introduced a new set of guidelines and restrictions for the export of US-made AI chips.

The administration announced this on Monday Interim Final Rule On AI Diffusion. The ruling is intended to “provide clarity to allied and partner nations on how they can benefit from AI” and streamline licensing barriers for chip orders, according to a White House press release. But these rules also introduce new chip sales restrictions in most countries around the world.

According to these new guidelines, countries are divided into three groups Reporting From CNN.

The first group includes strong US allies such as Japan and South Korea, which are not affected by the new restrictions. The second group includes countries like China and Russia. These countries already can’t buy advanced AI chips and will now face further restrictions under new guidelines on mostly “closed” AI models. The third group, which includes most of the world, will now have a cap on how many chips they can buy. The cap is set at 50,000 graphics processing units per country, but there are many ways a country can access a higher quota.

This third group of countries that are neither strong allies nor enemies of the United States, including places like Mexico, Portugal and Israel, are arguably the most affected by the changes, CNN reported. Restrictions on this group of countries are meant to prevent rivals like China and Russia from buying chips through them, but will also hurt AI adoption in these countries in the process.

Nvidia issued a statement Monday called the proposed rules “unprecedented and misguided” and added that they would “derail” global innovation and economic growth.

These proposals build on the guidance the Biden administration released in October 2022 and October 2023. Today’s proposal also includes a 120-day comment period, but the rules will go into effect before that period ends, according to CNN reporting.

While the news is causing quite a stir in the AI ​​community, with a new administration taking office next week, the conversation around chip export restrictions could look very different by the end of the month.