Curbs on A.I. Exports? Silicon Valley Fears Losing Its Edge
The US Commerce Department proposed new export restrictions on artificial intelligence technology for national security reasons following the passage of the Export Controls Act of 2018. In November, the department released a list of technologies under consideration, including categories like computer vision and natural language understanding. Federal officials argue that China has stolen American technology through espionage and have encouraged the restrictions in the context of the ongoing trade war between the United States and China.
Tech industry insiders and policy experts worry that these restrictions could harm US companies and inadvertently aid the growth of AI industries in China and other nations. They argue that AI is a dual-use technology with both commercial and military applications, making it difficult to regulate. Furthermore, many experts believe controls will be ineffective because AI research is often collaborative, open-source, and freely available, with code published on academic sites like Arxiv.org.
Enforcing these restrictions could present significant regulatory challenges, as regulators struggle to distinguish between commercial and military uses of AI. While the Commerce Department could ban the export of certain chips or restrict foreign access to cloud computing, experts suggest overly strict rules might drive research and development to other countries like Europe. Jack Clark of OpenAI and others have warned that errors in implementation could cause "real damage to the AI community."