US Lawmakers Advance Bill To Make It Easier To Curb Exports of AI Models (reuters.com) 30
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to advance a bill that would make it easier for the Biden administration to restrict the export of AI systems, citing concerns China could exploit them to bolster its military capabilities. From a report: The bill, sponsored by House Republicans Michael McCaul and John Molenaar and Democrats Raja Krishnamoorthi and Susan Wild, also would give the Commerce Department express authority to bar Americans from working with foreigners to develop AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national security. Without this legislation "our top AI companies could inadvertently fuel China's technological ascent, empowering their military and malign ambitions," McCaul, who chairs the committee, warned on Wednesday.
"As the (Chinese Communist Party) looks to expand their technological advancements to enhance their surveillance state and war machine, it is critical we protect our sensitive technology from falling into their hands," McCaul added. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bill is the latest sign Washington is gearing up to beat back China's AI ambitions over fears Beijing could harness the technology to meddle in other countries' elections, create bioweapons or launch cyberattacks.
"As the (Chinese Communist Party) looks to expand their technological advancements to enhance their surveillance state and war machine, it is critical we protect our sensitive technology from falling into their hands," McCaul added. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The bill is the latest sign Washington is gearing up to beat back China's AI ambitions over fears Beijing could harness the technology to meddle in other countries' elections, create bioweapons or launch cyberattacks.
Dude, China has more data than you (Score:4, Insightful)
China has ~4x population that is much more active in terms of phone usage, e.g. mobile payment, etc. Add to that the much higher portion of EV usage (which is often called mobile phones on wheels). Anyone thinks China isn't collecting all these data?
Ok, so now you wanted to limit AI models, which relies on gobs of data, being exported to China. Guess who has more data to build AI models quicker?
This will backfire just like the bill that forbids NASA from working with China, now which China used as a reason to ignore NASA when they asked for Chinese moon samples.
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:2)
You've got this horribly confused. A model is an algorithm. You feed the data into the algorithm to get an output.
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:4, Informative)
Doesn't matter, this is like a bill banning oil export to Middle East, you can argue it is oil drilling equipment and not really oil, but in the long term it will eventually backfire in either case. You are picking a fight that you cannot win.
Go check out the videos of autonomous driving or auto-emergency braking in China, while they may not be significantly ahead right now, it is obvious that it is now too late to try to slow them down or stop their AI development. Pouring more bad blood in the AI field is just pointing at your own face and yell "hit me!".
This scenario had already played out again and again, in the fields of space exploration, and then mobile phones, it is going on in chips and now they are starting it in AI, thinking "THIS time it would be different!"....
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:3)
Doesn't seem to be the case in either mobile or space. SpaceX alone launches more tonnage into space than the entire rest of the world combined. And exploration? We're way ahead of them on that as well. Mars, Europa, you name it. Moon rocks? Yeah, we did that 60 years ago.
And what about mobile? Huawei is using American made software on parts generally designed and built by non-chinese companies.
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Doesn't seem to be the case in either mobile or space. SpaceX alone launches more tonnage into space than the entire rest of the world combined. And exploration? We're way ahead of them on that as well. Mars, Europa, you name it. Moon rocks? Yeah, we did that 60 years ago.
Who cares what was done 60 years ago? We are living in the present, not 60 years ago. China now has a fully working space station, something generally thought impossible just 30 years ago. NASA's Moon plan keeps slipping while China's Moon plan proceeding as planned. China reaching the Moon before NASA, which was extremely unlikely just 5 years ago, is now in the "remotely possible" range. Who knows how it would turn out?
And what about mobile? Huawei is using American made software on parts generally designed and built by non-chinese companies.
Yeah, right, keep believing that. Amazingly not matter how many sanctions was sla
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It is NOT in the US's best interest to do ANYTHING that will help or aid China (CCP), a government that is proven antagonistic to the US.
That's pretty simple to understand...you don't help your enemies.
And China has NEVER been a friend to the US or the west in general.
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:2)
It's kind of strange that how in cases of hot war, the US has only ever provided military assistance to China, never adversarial. Yet China aligns itself with countries that have done exactly the opposite. Its biggest ally, Russia, currently currently holds numerous territories that are historically Chinese, all that it took through military force.
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:2)
Who cares what was done 60 years ago? We are living in the present, not 60 years ago. China now has a fully working space station, something generally thought impossible just 30 years ago. NASA's Moon plan keeps slipping while China's Moon plan proceeding as planned. China reaching the Moon before NASA, which was extremely unlikely just 5 years ago, is now in the "remotely possible" range. Who knows how it would turn out?
China can't beat us there because we've already been there and done that. We're well passed the moon at this point. I'm not sure what your point about their space station is, it's smaller than ISS, not by a little but by a lot. Starship is also right around the corner, and its expected pressurized volume will be even larger than ISS. Who needs a space station when you have that?
Yeah, right, keep believing that.
It's just a fact.
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Its the data that makes the model. The models aren't as complex as people seem to think they are. They are just big. The transformer that powers chat gpt likely has less code than its web front end, and its all well documented.
Its the training data and chunky GPUs that give these things their power.
Re: Dude, China has more data than you (Score:2)
None of them have any idea... (Score:4, Insightful)
That cat is out of the bag (Score:4, Insightful)
There are a lot of open-source models that could be retrained from scratch. The processes are pretty well understood.
Any country that can afford to do the training can create their own ai models.
Re:That cat is out of the bag (Score:5, Insightful)
The likely consequence of this will be that US AI exports are harmed as people look for models that can be used globally without restriction. China will provide them.
These export restrictions never work as intended.
Don't worry. This won't change anything. (Score:3)
Congress time and time again prove that they know nothing about technology or markets.
They will just steal it (Score:4, Interesting)
IT security in major IT shops has gotten so bad, they will just walk in, copy it and nobody may even notice.
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We'll steal it back. Do you think China has any better security?
Re:They will just steal it (Score:4, Funny)
That will show them!
Hmm. Maybe this is a form of free offshoring? Let them steal it and improve it and then steal it back!
New cast, same stupid old broken tricks (Score:2, Insightful)
USA, *YOU* are what you think *THEY* are.. (Score:2)
.. and they are *NOT* what you think they are.
Just because you would behave a certain way, does not mean they would behave that same way.
This is pure sinophobia. Nothing more.
No need (Score:3)
China doesn't need AI for any of that, they got experts in any field, better than AI models.
Re: No need (Score:2)
That cat is already out of the bag (Score:4, Insightful)
By now most researchers around the world in this space understand how this stuff works. And are limited mostly by hardware and energy. Anybody that has money to buy NVIDIA hardware and has electricity to spare can build their own models.
This law will only hamper opensource models. It will do nothing to stop the spy agencies and militaries of others countries.
Good luck with that (Score:2)
Enforced by doing what ..... (Score:3)
and how do you find out it's even happened -- this is another law written by people who don't understand computers
Have we heard this before? (Score:4, Insightful)
Didn't they also ban export of strong encryption software (at the time defined as 40+ bit keys) from the US, based on the fantasy that non-Yankees wouldn't be capable of making their own, or something?
(...cough cough PGP cough...)
AI CPU's (Score:1)