The competition for AI supremacy is global and accelerating, and on Friday it was on full display in Asia.
China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology published a joint draft document that would restrict or ban exports of 40 technologies, including AI technology, solar power, and biomedicine.
A little over half -- 23 -- of the items added to the proposed list are tied to large-scale AI models, agents, semiconductors, and computing clusters.
"The Chinese government's necessary management of these technologies aims to solidify the security baseline, prevent misuse and abuse, ensure that AI remains under human control, and promote international governance of AI," a commerce ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson emphasized that "the vast majority of AI technologies will still be freely exportable," including most of China's open-source models.
Technology exports involving open-source AI technologies will have automatic licensing applied, providing a streamlined export process, the spokesperson said, while technologies that have already entered the public domain and any web, app, or software-as-a-service tools based on restricted models will be excluded from the scope of the export controls.
That is an important distinction. Although the U.S. is leading the AI race with better high-end AI models and semiconductor technology, China's cheaper open-source models may give the country an edge when it comes to winning in terms of model adoption. Given American dominance of the semiconductor market, any Chinese chip export controls likely won't make a big dent on the semi industry.
China's commerce and science and technology ministries are now soliciting public opinions on the new exports restrictions, meaning there could be changes to the final list. Until the final draft is approved and enforced, though, exporters are being required to register any activity that falls under the scope of the draft list.
China's attempt to curb access to high-end technology isn't a big surprise, and may just be a response to the U.S.'s own longstanding tech export controls. The U.S. has long cut China off from its cutting-edge AI semiconductors and manufacturing equipment made by companies like Nvidia, but much of it still gets smuggled into China.
The U.S. is enlisting Taiwan, which produces the bulk of the world's semiconductors, to help stem the flow.
Taipei will add AI servers and cutting-edge semiconductors to a list of controlled export items, making it a criminal offense to ship them to China, according to a Bloomberg interview with Taiwan's Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin. Currently, there are few enforceable penalties for shipping unauthorized technology to China.
"Going forward, some of our measures on controlled items will correspond to American ones because we have made quite some commitments in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade," Kung told Bloomberg, referring to the trade deal that the U.S. and Taiwan signed this year.
The Taiwanese Embassy didn't immediately respond to Barron's request for comment.
Comments