“The United States cannot allow non-state actors or parties that we do not want to have access to our cloud resources to train their models,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters . “We have export controls on chips. Those chips are also used in U.S. cloud data centers, so we also have to think about preventing potentially malicious activity.”

The Biden administration is taking a series of steps aimed at preventing China from using US technology for artificial intelligence, as the field's growth raises security concerns.

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US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. Photo: Reuters

The proposed "know your customer" rule was released for public comment last week and is expected to be announced early this week.

The US needs to consider preventing Beijing from using its computing power, the head of the Commerce Department said, as Washington tightens control over computing power through hardware export restrictions.

Last month, Raimondo announced that the Commerce Department would not allow Nvidia to “ship the most sophisticated, high-performance AI chips that enable China to train cutting-edge models.”

The US government is concerned about China's development of advanced AI systems for national security reasons, and has taken steps to prevent Beijing from acquiring advanced US technologies to enhance its military power.

The new proposal would require U.S. cloud computing companies to verify the identities of foreign nationals registering or maintaining cloud computing accounts through a “Customer Identification Program.” It would also set minimum standards for identifying foreign users and require cloud computing companies to certify compliance annually.

Raimondo said US cloud computing companies “should have a responsibility to know which of their biggest customers are training which of their biggest models.”

President Joe Biden signed an executive order in October requiring developers of AI systems that pose risks to national security, the economy , public health, or the public to share safety testing results with the government before releasing their products.

Carl Szabo, general counsel at NetChoice, a tech industry trade group, said the Commerce Department is implementing Biden’s “illegal” executive order “to force industries to require AI reporting.” He added that requiring cloud companies to report on their non-U.S. customers’ large language model training “could discourage international collaboration.”

Major US cloud computing companies include Amazon (AWS), Alphabet (Google Cloud) and Microsoft (Azure).

Vietnam joins the race to develop general AI in Asia Nikkei Asia commented that Vietnam has joined the race to develop general artificial intelligence programs that serve local languages and cultures in Asia, with ViGTP - an AI program developed by VinBigData (VBD).