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US President Joe Biden's administration's plan to issue an interim final rule related to export controls of artificial intelligence (AI) chips poses potential risks to the US' global leadership in AI that "cannot be emphasized enough," a senior executive of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) told the Global Times on Thursday.

The ITI, which represents many US tech companies such as Apple and Intel, has urged the Biden administration not to issue a last-minute rule that would control global access to AI chips. 

In response to the Global Times' inquiry, Naomi Wilson, the ITI's Senior Vice President of Asia and Global Trade Policy, said that "while we share the US government's commitment to national and economic security, the rule's potential risks to US global leadership in AI cannot be emphasized enough."

Wilson further stated that "industry has continued to sound the alarm on the significant implications of the Biden Administration rushing such a complex rule through the regulatory process with less than two weeks left until Inauguration Day."

The ITI also shared with the Global Times a letter the group's President and CEO Jason Oxman wrote to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. 

In the letter dated on Tuesday, Oxman wrote that "a rule of this nature would cede the global market to US competitors who will be eager to fill the untapped demand created by placing arbitrary constraints on US companies' ability to sell basic computing systems overseas. Should the US lose its advantage in the global AI ecosystem, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to regain in the future."

Furthermore, Oxman pointed out that such a rule, if implemented hastily, would fragment global supply chains, potentially encouraging multinational companies and customers to limit their reliance on US technology. "We urge the Biden Administration to follow the appropriate regulatory review process and not destabilize global export controls at a time when stability will be especially important," Oxman wrote in the letter.

The rule, which could come out as soon as Friday, would place arbitrary constraints on US companies' ability to sell computing systems overseas and cede the global market to competitors, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

China has repeatedly criticized the US' ever-expanding restrictions in the semiconductor industry. In responding to a report that the US was preparing to further restrict exports to Chinese chip tool makers on December 2, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China firmly opposes the US's overstretching the concept of national security, abusing export controls, and maliciously blocking and suppressing China.

"This type of behavior seriously violates the laws of market economy and the principle of fair competition, disrupts international economic and trade order, destabilizes global industrial and supply chains, and will eventually harm the interests of all countries," Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the ministry said at the time. "China will take resolute measures to firmly defend the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies."

Global Times