The President Joe Biden administration announced a new rule that aims to make it easier to sell artificial intelligence systems and computing power to U.S. allies, while also keeping the technology out of the hands of countries of concern.
The Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion builds on previous regulations like the chip controls announced in October 2022 and October 2023, the White House said in a Monday (Jan. 13) press release.
“To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world’s AI runs on American rails,” the release said. “It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems.”
To facilitate the responsible diffusion of AI, the rule places no restrictions on chip sales to 18 U.S. allies and partners and streamlines the processing of low-risk shipments of the technology, according to the release.
The rule also creates two kinds of status — Universal Verified End User (UVEU) and National Verified End User — that help responsible and trusted entities benefit from U.S. technology, the release said.
It also allows the purchase of large amounts of computational power by non-VEU entities located outside of key allies and enables governments to double their chip caps by signing government-to-government arrangements that align their AI-related values with those of the U.S., per the release.
To constrain the access to technology of countries of concern, the rule has provisions that ensure they can access advanced semiconductors for general-purpose applications but not for training advanced AI systems, restrict the transfer of model weights and set security standards to protect the weights of advanced closed-weight AI models, according to the release.
Biden issued the first National Security Memorandum on AI in October, directing federal agencies to protect the country’s AI advances as strategic assets while fostering their safe development for national security.
The White House directive outlined three core objectives: maintaining U.S. leadership in safe AI development; harnessing AI for national security while protecting democratic values; and building international consensus on AI governance.
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