The White House on Wednesday released proposals to restrict exports of American AI equipment and limit the spread of Chinese AI models as part of a sweeping plan to shape the rules governing the fast-moving technology.
The 28-page AI Action Plan marks US President Donald Trump’s administration’s first comprehensive strategy on the topic and comes as national security hawks have raised concerns that superior American chips may reach China – including through third countries – and advance its AI and military development.
Under the plan, the US Commerce Department will lead an effort to develop new export controls on chipmaking components to close “loopholes” in current restrictions that now focus on major systems.
The department will also lead efforts to increase the monitoring of exported US chip end users and to explore using new chip location verification features to keep them out of “countries of concern” – a term often used to refer to China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, among others.
The plan also directs the Defence and Commerce departments to coordinate with allies on adopting US export controls and to prohibit American adversaries from being involved in their defence supply chains.
“Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to transform the global economy and alter the balance of power in the world,” White House AI tsar David Sacks said in a written statement.
“To win the AI race, the US must lead in innovation, infrastructure, and global partnerships ... This Action Plan provides a road map for doing that,” he added.
The Trump administration decision last week to allow American chipmaker Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China reinvigorated furious debate about how to extend the US technological lead without compromising national security. That came months after the administration revoked a rule put in place under former President Joe Biden that limited how much US AI computing capability certain countries could access through imported US chips.
American AI companies face increased competition from such Chinese rivals as Hangzhou-based DeepSeek, which sent global shock waves earlier this year when it released powerful AI models built far more cheaply than many had thought possible.
Trump has previously warned of China’s potential to surpass the US in the race for AI dominance.
Speaking about the White House plan at an AI summit on Wednesday, Trump said he wants to make the US an “AI export powerhouse” while maintaining “necessary protections for our national security”.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “will work to rapidly expand American AI exports of all kinds, from chips to software to data storage”, he said, before signing executive orders to fast-track AI development and promote exports.
Ryan Fedasiuk, a former technology policy advisor in the State Department’s Office of China Coordination, said that taken together, the export control proposals “thread a difficult needle” in the lead-up to US-China trade talks in Stockholm next week.
“They tighten technology controls without risking an existential blow to the provisional trade deal struck in London, and they focus on enforcement gaps rather than adding sweeping new restrictions,” he said.
The real impact of the plan will depend “entirely” on its execution, Fedasiuk added.
“Allied coordination is where the rubber meets the road. Export controls only work if they’re multilateral, and we’ve seen too many cases where US restrictions just pushed business to Dutch or Japanese competitors.”
The new administration blueprint also makes several recommendations focused on countering the spread of Chinese models.
To ensure “that free speech flourishes in the era of AI”, the Commerce Department is to evaluate advanced Chinese AI models for alignment with Communist Party talking points and censorship practices.
Along with the US State Department, Commerce will lead a campaign to “vigorously advocate” for international AI governance approaches that “counter Chinese influence” at diplomatic and standard-setting bodies.
Too many existing efforts “have advocated for burdensome regulations, vague ‘codes of conduct’ that promote cultural agendas that do not align with American values, or have been influenced by Chinese companies attempting to shape standards for facial recognition and surveillance”, the plan said.
The two departments will also lead a new initiative to share technology protection measures, including measures in basic research and higher education, with allies and partners.
To promote the use of American AI technology rather than that of adversaries, the Commerce Department will gather industry proposals for “full-stack AI export packages” – bundled systems that include AI hardware, software, and related services intended for export.
In recent years, the US has pushed its European and Asian allies to stop exports of advanced chipmaking equipment to China. Wednesday’s document carries a thinly veiled threat to allies, warning that failure to align with US export controls could trigger punitive trade measures through secondary tariffs. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
