The Trump administration is reportedly intending to scrap a rule put in place by the Biden administration that aimed to limit exports of artificial intelligence chips to many countries.
The Financial Times reported a US official saying on Wednesday that the planned regulation, which was due to take effect on 15 May, was full of red tape that made it “unenforceable”. Instead, the Trump administration intends to overhaul the rule.
It comes after the Biden administration in January (a week before the Trump inauguration), had unveiled wide-ranging new export controls that aimed to protect the US lead in AI and head off national security threats from China, by placing licensing requirements on most countries (aside from the country’s top allies).
Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion
The Biden rules aimed to more effectively cut off China’s access to advanced AI-related technologies by imposing a licensing regime on the entire world – minus selected allies.
The Biden rule (known as the Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion) allowed unrestricted access to AI technologies for the G7 countries (UK, France, Canada , Germany, Italy, Japan etc) as well as a select number of other allied nations including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and Ireland.
Countries like China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, were effectively barred from technologies such as advanced AI chips.
Now the Financial Times has reported that Trump’s officials have stated that the Biden law is unenforceable and intend to overhaul it.
The FT noted that the move by Washington comes as the new administration takes a more lenient approach to the regulation of AI and other advanced technologies domestically, and contends with the rise of Chinese companies in the sector.
The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion would have restricted Nvidia and others from selling into many nations. Indeed, Nvidia would have otherwise been subjected to limits on the amount of AI hardware it could sell in countries such as India, Switzerland and Singapore.
Biden’s law had at the time been criticised by the semiconductor industry and American tech companies.
John Neuffer, head of the Semiconductor Industry Association, for example said in January the rules had been “rushed out the door days before a presidential transition and without any meaningful input from industry”.
Now the FT reported that instead of allowing the Biden-era controls to take effect in a week, the official said the Trump administration would draft a rule that would ensure that US technology flourished without allowing American adversaries to gain access to the technology.
The official reportedly cautioned that the rule would not be imminent and would take some time to put in place.
“We welcome the administration’s leadership and new direction on AI policy,” an Nvidia spokesperson was quoted as saying by the FT. “With the AI Diffusion Rule revoked, America will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead the next industrial revolution and create high-paying US jobs, build new US-supplied infrastructure and alleviate the trade deficit.”
Export controls
The most powerful chips from Nvidia are already banned from export to China following successive performance-based restrictions under the Biden administration.
Last month Nvidia said it would take a $5.5 billion (£4.1bn) charge after the White House imposed unexpected restrictions on sales of its H20 chip, which it expressly engineered to comply with earlier US sanctions.
Earlier this week it was reported that Nvidia had told some of its biggest Chinese customers that it is tweaking the design of its AI chips so they can be sold to Chinese businesses without clashing with US export rules.
It came after the founder and boss of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, made a surprise visit to China last month, just days after the Trump Administration had issued fresh export restrictions for the only AI chip the American chip maker was still allowed to sell to China.