China Select Committee Leaders Offer Ideas to Fine-Tune Upcoming BIS AI Export Control Rule
The leaders of the House Select Committee on China said Jan. 6 that they support the Bureau of Industry and Security’s plans to place new export controls on advanced AI-related chips and believe the agency's upcoming interim final rule should include several specific measures to help keep sensitive technology out of China’s hands.
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In a Jan. 2 letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Reps. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., the committee’s chairman and ranking member, respectively, said that foreign countries that house Chinese military bases or intelligence capabilities shouldn't be allowed to receive advanced U.S. graphics processing units (GPUs). In addition, countries that host Huawei cloud computing infrastructure should face restrictions on accessing the model weights of closed-weight, dual-use AI models, the letter says.
"It is clear that U.S. model weights and advanced GPUs are coveted technologies by our partners and adversaries alike," the lawmakers wrote. "Therefore, this is a unique opportunity for the United States to use its leadership in AI technology to push other countries to limit their interactions with [China] in contexts where it threatens our national security interests."
The letter also calls for updating the upcoming regulations “routinely” instead of annually to allow BIS to adapt as China uses “rapidly shifting tactics” to evade U.S. export controls.
BIS is expected to release the rule, “Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion,” before President Joe Biden leaves office Jan. 20 (see 2501060015).