Tech
Tech group urges US to halt rule that would limit global access to AI chips
A technology industry group on Tuesday urged President Joe Biden’s administration to refrain from issuing a last-minute rule that would control global access to AI chips, warning the restrictions would jeopardize U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence.
The Information Technology Industry Council, representing companies like Amazon (AMZN.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Meta (META.O), said the rule, which could come out as soon as Friday, would place arbitrary constraints on U.S. companies’ ability to sell computing systems overseas and cede the global market to competitors.
Reuters reported exclusive details last month on the Commerce Department’s plan for approving global AI chip exports while also preventing bad actors from accessing them. A key aim of the restrictions is to keep AI from supercharging China’s military capabilities.
In a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ITI CEO Jason Oxman criticized the administration’s “insistence” on publishing the rule in the final days of Joe Biden’s presidency. Donald Trump will be inaugurated Jan. 20.
“Rushing a consequential and complex rule to completion could have significant adverse consequences,” Oxman said in the Jan. 7 letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
While ITI appreciates the commitment to national security, the letter said, “the potential risks to U.S. global leadership in AI are real and should be taken seriously.”
The group asked that any such controls be issued as proposed rulemaking, rather than a rule, given the significant geopolitical and economic implications.
From a new member of the trillion-dollar club to a sure way to get Donald Trump’s attention,
Neither the Commerce Department nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.
Industry opposition to the expected rule has become increasingly blunt and public.
The Semiconductor Industry Association issued a statement on Monday night. And on Sunday, Ken Glueck, executive vice president at Oracle (ORCL.N), said in a blog post that rather than target activities of concern, 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.”
He said the “Export Control Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion,” as the draft rule is titled, “will go down as one of the most destructive to ever hit the U.S. technology industry.”
OpenAI and Japanese conglomerate SoftBank (9984.T) will each commit $19 billion to fund Stargate, a joint venture to develop data centers for artificial intelligence in the U.S., the Information reported on Wednesday.
The ChatGPT maker will hold a 40% interest in Stargate, and would act as an extension of OpenAI, the report said, citing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaking to colleagues. His comments imply SoftBank would also have a 40% interest, the report added.
OpenAI and SoftBank did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank Group and Oracle (ORCL.N) will unveil Stargate and invest $500 billion over the next four years to help the United States stay ahead of China and other rivals in the global AI race.
Stargate will initially deploy $100 billion and the rest of the funding is expected over the next four years. The project is being led by SoftBank and OpenAI.
Taiwan’s HTC (2498.TW) said on Thursday it will sell part of its unit for extended reality (XR) headsets and glasses to Google (GOOGL.O) for $250 million and transfer some of its employees to the U.S. company.
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year, HTC said.
The two companies will also explore further collaboration opportunities, HTC added.
Google said in a separate statement that the deal will accelerate the development of the Android XR platform and strengthen the ecosystem for headsets and glasses.
Lu Chia-te, HTC vice president and general counsel, told reporters the company had granted its intellectual property rights to Google as a non-exclusive license.
“Therefore, this is not a buyout nor an exclusive licence. In the future, HTC will still retain the ability to use, utilise, and even further develop it without any restrictions,” he said.
Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn has been sued by Premium customers who said the business-focused social media platform disclosed their private messages to third parties without permission to train generative artificial intelligence models.
According to a proposed class action filed on Tuesday night on behalf of millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, LinkedIn quietly introduced a privacy setting last August that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data.
Customers said LinkedIn then discreetly updated its privacy policy on Sept. 18 to say data could be used to train AI models, and in a “frequently asked questions” hyperlink said opting out “does not affect training that has already taken place.”
This attempt to “cover its tracks” suggests LinkedIn was fully aware it violated customers’ privacy and its promise to use personal data only to support and improve its platform, in order to minimize public scrutiny and legal fallout, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the San Jose, California, federal court on behalf of LinkedIn Premium customers who sent or received InMail messages, and whose private information was disclosed to third parties for AI training before Sept. 18.
It seeks unspecified damages for breach of contract and violations of California’s unfair competition law, and $1,000 per person for violations of the federal Stored Communications Act.
A lawyer for Prince Harry on Wednesday said the Duke of Sussex had reached a settlement with Rupert Murdoch’s news conglomerate.
LinkedIn said in a statement: “These are false claims with no merit.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs had no immediate additional comment.
The lawsuit was filed several hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a joint venture among Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Oracle (ORCL.N) and SoftBank (9984.T), with a potential $500 billion of investment, to build AI infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI, SoftBank each commit 19bn dollars to Stargate AI data center
Taiwan’s HTC to sell part of XR unit to Google for 250mn dollars
Microsoft’s LinkedIn sued for disclosing customer information to train AI models
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