TECH NEWS – The United States of America is gearing up for a centralization that could profoundly change the artificial intelligence market.
The Trump administration will not continue the Biden AI diffusion rule as it stands, but is likely to make a change that would likely give the U.S. an advantage. Trump and his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, see AI superiority as a national security issue and plan to use the technology to secure trade agreements. According to Reuters, the US administration plans to change the Biden-era AI diffusion rule, which is to be implemented by May 15. Instead of dividing countries into different tiers, the administration plans to change the rule to make America a more dominant negotiator.
The rule originally divided the countries to which Nvidia’s advanced AI GPUs could be exported into three categories. The first is a list of countries that either align with America’s national security objectives or pose no threat to the country. These countries are free to secure the chips for themselves. The second category includes hostile nations such as Russia and Iran, which are completely prohibited from purchasing U.S.-origin GPUs or AI software. The third category restricts countries like India from importing large quantities of GPUs without inspection.
Instead of restricting access to nations, the administration is replacing it with a licensing system so that countries that want access to high-tech AI chips from the U.S. would need a license. This would allow them to filter which countries they want to export AI chips to, and could be used as a negotiating tool. Another option is to set a threshold for exemption from licensing. The government is said to be considering a threshold of 500 H100 chips, after which a license would be mandatory. With the implementation of this policy, it is clear that companies like Nvidia will suffer greatly, as their market presence in regions not favorable to the US will be drastically reduced, and that includes China.
Nothing is official at the moment, but given that the rules should be in place soon, we should see an official announcement on the AI diffusion law in the coming days.
Leave a Reply