Tech group pushes US not to issue rule on AI chip access

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), a global trade association representing companies such as Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, has reportedly warned that a last-minute rule to be issued by President Joe Biden's administration could threaten US leadership in AI.

On Tuesday, the technology group asked the administration not to issue the new rule, expected on Friday, saying that the move to regulate global access AI chips would place arbitrary constraints on the ability of US companies to sell computer systems abroad, yielding the global market to competitors, Reuters reported.

In a letter addressed to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ITI chief executive Jason Oxman commented harshly on the administration's “insistence” on publishing the rule in the final days of Joe Biden's presidency, according to the news agency.

"Rushing the completion of such a complex and important rule could have significant negative consequences,” Oxman wrote. “Rushing a consequential and complex rule to completion could have significant adverse consequences.”

While positively addressing the government’s commitment to national security, the letter said that risks to US global leadership in AI were real and urged the administration to take them seriously.

The group also proposed such controls to be implemented as proposed rulemaking rather than a rule.

The new rule has received opposition from several organisations and companies, with ITI joining the opposition of semiconductor Industry Association, which issued a statement on Sunday.

On Monday, Ken Glueck, Oracle’s executive vice president , said in a blog post that the rule "drops the Mother of All Regulations on the commercial cloud industry, regulating... nearly all commercial cloud computing globally for the first time in history."



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