U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued an executive order directing the development of artificial intelligence data centers on six federal sites, with a particular focus on clean energy powering and maintaining high labor standards.
Biden said in a statement that the United States is a world leader in AI, but that leadership cannot be taken for granted.
“We cannot afford to lose to the United States on the technologies that will define our future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water,” Biden said.
The order requires the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to provide adequate funding for private companies to lease land, pay for the construction and operation of data centers, and ensure a supply of clean energy sufficient to fully power the sites. They are asked to identify three locations each.
The White House also said developers should buy an “adequate share” of semiconductors produced in the United States to ensure a “robust domestic semiconductor supply chain.”
In addition to identifying sites, the federal government also promises to expedite the permitting process for building data centers under the order.
In a call with journalists who previewed the order, senior administration officials emphasized the national security need for the United States to have its own strong AI infrastructure. He emphasized that this is not only to protect AI for domestic use, but also to prevent adversaries such as China from owning AI infrastructure. ability.
“From a national security perspective, we need to build data centers and power infrastructure to support state-of-the-art AI operations here in the United States, and to ensure that our most powerful AI models continue to be trained and securely stored. “It’s very important that we find a way forward for the United States,” the official said.
Government officials said it is a priority to ensure the AI industry has a home in the United States, to avoid repeating the history of other technologies moving overseas to areas with lower labor and environmental standards.
AI chip limitations
Tuesday’s order comes a day after the Biden administration announced new restrictions on exports of cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips and the proprietary parameters used to govern how users interact with AI systems.
The rule, which will have a 120-day public comment period, responds to what administration officials have described as the need to protect national security and ensure that companies from trusted partner countries have access to and information about emerging technologies. It also clarifies the rules that can be obtained. Foster innovation.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters: “In the coming years, AI will truly permeate every business application in every industry around the world, with huge potential to improve productivity and bring social, medical and economic benefits. I’ll keep it a secret,” he said. “That said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to national security become even greater.”
Government officials said the new rules apply to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The rules build on 2023 regulations that restrict exports of certain AI chips to China, a strategic competitor in advanced semiconductor production. The Chinese government has attacked the new US AI law as a “clear violation” of international trade rules.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said the Biden administration’s announcement was “an example of the generalization of the concept of national security and abuse of export controls, and a serious violation of international multilateral economic and trade rules.”
The Chinese government said it would “take necessary measures to firmly protect legitimate rights and interests.”
Countries under a U.S. arms embargo are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but government officials said they will now be restricted from transferring the most powerful enclosed heavy-duty AI models. Ta.
According to the National Telecommunications Information Administration, the AI model’s weights determine how it processes input from the user and determines what it provides to the user in response. In a closed-weight system, these parameters are secret, unlike in an open-weight system where the user can see the settings the model is using to make decisions.
Most countries not on the private partner list or arms embargo list have licensing requirements to obtain the equivalent of 1,700 of the most advanced AI chips currently available, or even less. No licensing requirements apply.
Companies in the U.S. and its allies will face no restrictions on the use of the most powerful sealed weight AI systems, provided they are kept under appropriate security, a senior administration official said.
