Law360 Quotes Kevin Wolf on USG Renewed Restrictions on AI Software
Contact:
For its article “Commerce Renews AI Restrictions Amid Larger China Review,” Law360 quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Kevin Wolf on the Commerce Department’s one-year renewal of export restrictions on geospatial software that uses artificial intelligence (AI).
Wolf, who previously served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration, Bureau of Industry and Security, said that a primary benefit of the authority that Commerce invoked is to make the restrictions global, excepting Canada, and, thus, reaching U.S.-origin products worldwide.
He noted that, in enacting the Export Control Reform Act of 2018, Congress was concerned about the U.S.’s ongoing tech conflicts with China: “Part of the policy motive for the Export Control Reform Act giving enforcement authority to make export controls more robust and creating a process to identify emerging technology was a concern regarding Chinese technology acquisition efforts.”
The article notes that the way that the rules were devised upset U.S. firms, which expressed concern regarding the breadth of application of the restrictions. Wolf said that he suspects the complexity and novelty of AI technology led the Commerce Dept. to describe the restrictions in ways that upset business, and that was not an attempt by Commerce to assume broad authority over AI.
People Mentioned in This News
