US lawmakers introduce bill to ease restrictions on export of AI models

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill late Wednesday that would make it easier for the Biden administration to impose export restrictions on AI models to protect valuable American technology from foreign bad actors.

The bill, introduced by Republicans Michael McCaul, John Molenaar, Max Wise and Democrat Raja Krishnamurthy, would give the business sector express authority to prohibit Americans from cooperating with foreigners in developing AI systems that could endanger US national security.

The legislation aims to protect any future AI export regulations from legal challenges. There is growing concern that U.S. adversaries could use the samples to extract information and create content, launch aggressive cyberattacks, or develop effective biological weapons.

The United States is looking to open a new front in efforts to protect American AI from China and Russia by unveiling preliminary plans to impose export restrictions on highly advanced proprietary AI models, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

Under current US law, it is very difficult for the Commerce Department, which oversees US export policy, to regulate the export of freely downloadable open-source AI models.

If passed, the measure would remove barriers to regulating the export of open-source AI in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and give the Commerce Department express authority to regulate AI systems.

China has historically relied heavily on several Western-developed open source models, such as the “Lama” series of meta-platforms.

In March, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, a top research lab, was quoted by Chinese state media as saying that most of China’s AI models were actually based on Meta’s llama models, posing a major challenge. For China’s AI development.

In November 2023, 01.AI, one of China’s most popular AI unicorns founded by ex-Google executive Lee Kai-fu, suffered a severe backlash after some AI engineers discovered that its AI model was based on the Yi-34B meta’s llama system. .

It comes even after Microsoft ( MSFT.O ) announced it would invest $1.5 billion in United Arab Emirates-based artificial intelligence firm G42 and give G42 permission to use Microsoft’s cloud services to deploy AI applications.

The deal, which includes a defense pact with the governments of the United States and the United Arab Emirates, was announced despite growing concerns in the United States about deepening ties between China and Gulf states, including the United Arab Emirates.