U.S. government limits exports of artificial intelligence software – seem to have forgotten what happened when they limited cryptographic exports in the 90s

The Trump administration will make it more difficult to export artificial intelligence software as of next week, part of a bid to keep sensitive technologies out of the hands of rival powers like China.

Under a new rule that goes into effect on Monday, companies that export certain types of geospatial imagery software from the United States must apply for a license to send it overseas except when it is being shipped to Canada.

The measure is the first to be finalized by the Commerce Department under a mandate from a 2018 law, which tasked the agency with writing rules to boost oversight of exports of sensitive technology to adversaries like China, for economic and security reasons.

Reuters first reported that the agency was finalizing a set of narrow rules to limit such exports in a boon to U.S. industry that feared a much tougher tougher crackdown on sales abroad.

Source: U.S. government limits exports of artificial intelligence software – Reuters

Just in case you forgot about encryption products, clipper chips etc: US products were weakened with backdoors, which meant a) no-one wanted US products and b) there was a wildfire growth of non-US encryption products. So basically the US goal to limit cryptography failed and at a cost to US producers.

Robin Edgar

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