Major proposals to curb China’s access to artificial intelligence chips may end up in the Senate National Defense Authorization Act.
The manager’s amendment to the annual defense policy bill will include the AI Overwatch Act, the MATCH Act and the Chip Security Act, according to multiple sources. While there’s still much in flux for the fate of the Senate NDAA, this is a big win for China hawks who have pushed these measures for months.
These three proposals have been the top priorities for lawmakers of both parties on Capitol Hill who want to starve China of AI chips and the equipment required to make them.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has advanced versions of all three bills with significant bipartisan support. Several senators, led by Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have been simultaneously pushing to include the measures in the NDAA.
The bills’ inclusion in the manager’s amendment indicates there’s broad support among senior senators and leadership in the chamber for the measures. It may also push the administration to state its views on the bills, which they haven’t done publicly yet.
But there’s still much that’s unknown about the Senate NDAA at this moment. Democrats voted against beginning debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon given their opposition to the Iran war and the package’s price tag.
There’s significant opposition in the tech industry to all three bills, although the lobbying picture looks different for each one of them.
The AI Overwatch Act is aimed at inserting Congress into the export control decision-making for AI chips going to “countries of concern” like China. We’re told the version of the bill that made it into the manager’s amendment would shorten the ban on sales of highly advanced AI chips like Nvidia’s Blackwells to such countries from two years to 18 months.
The MATCH Act is aimed at pushing U.S. allies to restrict sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China to slow down its domestic chip industry.
Meanwhile, the Chip Security Act would require businesses to track their AI chips abroad to combat the smuggling of American technology.
Cyber-life. The White House on Tuesday announced a clearinghouse known as Gold Eagle to deal with cyber threats.
As the most powerful AI systems become more talented at cracking cyber defenses, this collaboration between government and industry will take in reports and push out threat and patch information to defenders like critical infrastructure.