As President Joe Biden preps an executive order on artificial intelligence (AI) for cyber defense, NVIDIA Corp. is lambasting another reported plan by the administration to impose new restrictions on AI chip exports.
“We would encourage President Biden to not preempt incoming President Trump by enacting a policy that will only harm the U.S. economy, set America back, and play into the hands of U.S. adversaries,” NVIDIA Vice President Ned Finkle said in a statement to Reuters. He called the policy a thinly-veiled “anti-China move” that would impact computers around the world and force other countries to seek alternative technologies.
“We believe that the proposed rule is so harmful that we posted a blog to describe our concerns,” John Rizzo, head of public policy communications at NVIDIA, said in an email. “The new ‘AI Diffusion’ rule will derail AI progress for industries at home and abroad. It will stifle innovation and undermine America’s global technology leadership.”
The Department of Commerce plans to approve global AI chip exports while restricting U.S. foes from accessing them so they don’t end up powering the Chinese military. The new export regulations could be announced soon, according to Bloomberg.
The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp., said the rule would place arbitrary constraints on American tech to sell computing systems overseas and cede the global market to competitors. NVIDIA is a dominant player in the AI chip sphere.
“By pressuring other nations to choose between the United States and China, the administration risks alienating key partners and inadvertently strengthening China’s position in the global AI ecosystem,” Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said in a statement.
President-elect Donald Trump, whose second term begins Jan. 20, imposed restrictions on the sale of U.S. technology to China during his first term in office, citing national security. He has threatened tariffs of up to 60% against China when he retakes office.
Meanwhile, a proposed third executive order from the Biden administration would fortify the nation’s cybersecurity through the use of AI and upgrades to federal security standards. The order seeks to establish a program at the Pentagon for using AI models to bolster cyber defenses, as well as create a pilot program in the energy sector for using AI to improve cybersecurity. The order also addresses software security.
The order is an apparent response to recent high-profile China-backed hacks that include a breach of the Treasury Department and an intrusion into U.S. telecommunications providers that enabled hackers to spy on the phones of Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
It is unclear whether Trump will allow Biden’s order to remain in place after Jan. 20.
“The first Trump Administration took a tough stance on China and has said it would continue to be tough on China. It will be interesting to see if President-Elect Trump and his new Administration are influenced by tech leaders that object to these new rules,” said Lawrence Ward, head of the Dorsey & Whitney’s National Security Law Group and an expert in U.S. export controls, sanctions, and international trade.
