October 07, 2023
The Cloud Can Solve America’s AI Problems
One year ago this week, the Biden administration instituted sweeping export controls on semiconductor chips—the sort used in advanced AI—and chip-making equipment going to China. But the current export controls are too blunt an instrument to be effective over the long term. The ban applies to any buyer in China, even for benign commercial uses that do not threaten national security. It also applies not just to U.S. AI chips and chip-making equipment, but also to chips produced outside of the United States using U.S.-origin technology, software, or equipment. These broad restrictions risk damaging U.S. firms’ market dominance, eroding the sustainability of a key lever for AI governance in the future.
These shifts in the semiconductor industry won’t happen overnight, but the United States needs a strategy for governing AI hardware that is sustainable over the long term.
And current export controls are too leaky to be a reliable method for slowing the proliferation of future high-risk AI systems. Actors prohibited from buying AI chips could still train these systems by smuggling chips or legally accessing cloud computing resources. Or they could simply acquire high-risk AI systems directly through theft or open-source models, adapting them for misuse.
Read the full article and more from Foreign Policy.
More from CNAS
-
CNAS Insights
Technology & National Security
CNAS Insights | America Must Expand AI Export Controls Amid Talks with ChinaThe path forward is to lengthen the United States’ AI lead by expanding, not weakening, technology protections, starting with closing three priority gaps: remote access, adver...
By Michelle Nie & Daniel Remler
-
Commentary
Indo-Pacific Security / Technology & National Security
Sharper: China's AI RiseArtificial intelligence has become a strategic priority for Beijing and Washington, yet both countries continue to pursue dramatically different strategies in their bid for gl...
By Charles Horn & Cadence Barker
-
Video
Technology & National Security
UN, Red Cross Call for Rules on Fully Autonomous WeaponsPaul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security, joins CNN to discuss the advent of fully autonomous weapons, the dangers of handing over targ...
By Paul Scharre
-
Commentary
Technology & National Security
Beneath the Surface: Overlooked Cyber Security ThreatsThis article was originally published in War on the Rocks. Cyber security remains a persistent concern for public and private sector organizations alike. Given the potential i...
By Caleb Withers
