Tension between the United States and China over technology appear to have worsened. Reuters is reporting that the Biden administration is poised to open up a new front regarding its Artificial Intelligence initiatives. It aims to place preliminary guardrails around the most advanced AI Models, the core software of artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT.
The US Commerce Department is considering a new regulatory push to restrict the export of proprietary or closed source AI models, whose software and the data are kept under wraps. China in the meantime says it is pushing ahead with its own AI initiatives, while Russia is doing the same. The US Commerce Department has declined to comment while the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Reuters.
But the Chinese Embassy has described the move as a “typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying, which China firmly opposes,” adding that it would take “necessary measures” to protect its interests. Currently, nothing is stopping U.S. AI giants like Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and rival Anthropic, which have developed some of the most powerful closed source AI models, from selling them to almost anyone in the world without government oversight. However, US government and private sector researchers worry that other countries could use the models to wage aggressive cyber-attacks or even create potent biological weapons.
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