The Commerce Department is Considering National Security Restrictions on AI (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A common belief among tech industry insiders is that Silicon Valley has dominated the internet because much of the worldwide network was designed and built by Americans. Now a growing number of those insiders are worried that proposed export restrictions could short-circuit the pre-eminence of American companies in the next big thing to hit their industry, artificial intelligence.

In November, the Commerce Department released a list of technologies, including artificial intelligence, that are under consideration for new export rules because of their importance to national security. Technology experts worry that blocking the export of A.I. to other countries, or tying it up in red tape, will help A.I. industries flourish in those nations -- China, in particular -- and compete with American companies.

"The number of cases where exports can be sufficiently controlled are very, very, very small, and the chance of making an error is quite large," said Jack Clark, head of policy at OpenAI, an artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco. "If this goes wrong, it could do real damage to the A.I. community." The export controls are being considered as the United States and China engage in a trade war. The Trump administration has been critical of the way China negotiates deals with American companies, often requiring the transfer of technology to Chinese partners as the cost of doing business in the country. And federal officials are making an aggressive argument that China has stolen American technology through hacking and industrial espionage.

Comments

Export-grade cryptography v2.0

[sinij]

This is another chapter in the saga of export-grade cryptography.

Re: Export-grade cryptography v2.0

[Anonymous Coward]

And why should US conpanies guve technology to any foreign company just because they say it is required to do a deal - there has to be a good reason - the E.U. does not play these stupid games, why would China be allowed to. At a minimum any transfer to a Chinese company of any asset would in my mind require audits up the yin yang along with process controls, ownership rights, and a full understanding of the control structures and conduct of an organization. I think there is plenty of tech and research in the US we do not need to beg China for their scraps

Just my two cents ;)

Re:Export-grade cryptography v2.0

[bigpat]

This is another chapter in the saga of export-grade cryptography.

Bingo... The US will hobble itself in the name of national security and then China will get everything anyway because they have hacked and back doored US IT hardware, firmware and software.

We need to sort out our issues with China peacefully. I agree with playing hardball up to a point because we can't all just roll over and give up our Liberty and democracy as China takes over the world... but this isn't about allowing China access to US technology, they have everything they need already from hacking and disclosures, a bigger economy to fund additional R&D, and more people to throw at any problem.

This is about giving US companies the ability to collaborate with the rest of the world without registering their software as a weapon and without the threat of jailing researchers and software developers for just sharing software.

We should be dealing with China, not threatening US citizens because the US government can't get its shit together.