As part of a full committee markup on Jan. 21, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced legislation led by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) and six of his Republican colleagues that would require a license from the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security to export, reexport, or in-country transfer certain integrated circuits.
“This bill is very simple,” said Rep. Mast, chairman of the committee. “It keeps America’s advanced AI chips out of the hands of Chinese commie spies.”
The congressman last month sponsored the Artificial Intelligence Oversight of Verified Exports and Restrictions on Weaponizable Advanced Technology to Covered High-Risk Actors Act, also known as the AI OVERWATCH Act, H.R. 6875.
The bill would help ensure congressional oversight keeps pace with advancing technology, blocks adversary militaries from accessing weapon-enabling AI, and anchors allies and partners to American AI systems by codifying national security requirements in the U.S. Commerce Department’s recent H200 rule.
“Companies like Nvidia are requesting to sell millions of advanced AI chips, which are the cutting edge of warfare, to Chinese military companies like Alibaba and Tencent,” Rep. Mast said. “These are the same companies that work to spy against the United States of America, companies that the Chinese Communist Party uses to try and defeat the United States.”
According to his office, the bill would apply long-standing congressional oversight to exports of America’s sensitive, military-enhancing AI chips, which are dual-use technologies powering military command and control, surveillance, cyber operations, nuclear weapons development, and autonomous weapons.
Without strong security conditions, the congressman says, the same computing power that drives innovation could be turned against U.S. and allied military forces.
Among the six original cosponsors of H.R. 6875 are U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), John Moolenaar (R-MI), Young Kim (R-CA), and Darin LaHood (R-IL). More than a dozen other representatives from both sides of the aisle have since signed on as cosponsors, as well.