AI a Focus as U.S. Preps Export Controls

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Uncle Sam wants to restrict a few good technologies — and it needs engineers to help identify them.

As part of legislation passed this summer, the U.S. Commerce Department put out a call for input by December 19 on which of 14 broad emerging technologies should face export controls. The call quickly got attention from industry veterans and groups concerned controls could hurt U.S. companies and worsen a growing tech trade war with China.

The call issued on Nov. 14 listed aspects of biotech, AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, robotics, drones and advanced materials as possible candidates. It gave special attention to AI, listing ten specific areas ranging from computer vision and natural-language processing to AI chipsets. In semiconductors, it called out even broader areas including microprocessor technology, SoCs, stacked memory on chip and memory-centric logic.

The effort aims to determine what emerging technologies could be strategic to national security and how to identify and control them without “negatively impacting U.S. leadership in the science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing sectors.” It did not define the range of the controls except to say “at a minimum it [would] require a license for [their] export…to countries subject to a U.S. embargo, including those subject to an arms embargo.”

A government spokesperson said the Commerce Dept. plans to publish proposed controls on emerging technologies after reviewing comments to its call. It will take public comments on the proposed controls before making them final, but the spokesperson gave no timeline for the process.

Commerce is expected to issue a second call early next year for guidance on what it calls fundamental or more mature technologies including semiconductors and manufacturing equipment. The actions stem from the Foreign Investment Risk Reduction Management Act (FIRRMA), aimed to use export controls to stem a perceived leaking of sensitive technologies, especially to China.

The bill also expanded the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Under an 18-month pilot program, CFIUS now can review non-controlling investments in U.S. companies in 27 areas including semiconductors and semiconductor tools.

More than a dozen reactions to the Commerce call are already live on the government’s Web site, several pointing out the challenges and dangers of the effort. The Association for Computing Machinery is one of multiple groups requesting up to a 60-day extension of the deadline to submit responses due to the effort’s “enormous import not only to national security, but to the future of American technological progress in industry and academia."

“The list of technologies Commerce is considering for controls is so broad that restrictions could severely limit opportunities to participate in international markets, weakening U.S. companies and U.S. competitiveness overall,” said Chris Rowen, a serial entrepreneur in semiconductors, now CEO of BabbleLabs, an AI software startup in Campbell, Calif.

The idea of export controls on AI is “analogous to saying let’s not export software because it’s used in military systems,” said Rowen, who is preparing his own response to the government call.

“AI has become a basic software technique. I would not limit it in sweeping ways…They need to focus on areas where the majority of use is associated with the military,” he added.