After America put its weight over the years to crack down on the large Chinese technology companies related to phones and communications equipment, such as Huawei and ZTE, a major shift occurred in Washington’s goals with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, so that this new technology became the main title of the technological war taking place between... Both parties, which was embodied by America tightening its restrictions on the access of advanced artificial intelligence chips to Chinese companies in 2023.

Mandatory declaration for foreign clients

The intensity of the technological hostility between America and China escalated during 2024. At the beginning of the first month of the year, the Dutch company ASML announced its response to new American restrictions preventing the sale of some types of chip manufacturing machines to Chinese companies.

The month ended with a new American proposal, expanding the scope of the technological conflict with China, and aiming to force American cloud companies to declare every foreign client who exploits their computing power to fuel artificial intelligence applications.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that her country wants American cloud service providers to identify and actively investigate foreign customers who develop artificial intelligence applications on their platforms, with the aim of addressing risks resulting from fraud, theft, facilitating terrorism, and other activities that conflict with security interests. American nationalist.

The Minister indicated that her team is focused on eliminating the national security threats posed by the development of artificial intelligence, as the fall of these models into the hands of non-state actors, or people who are not allies of America, is very dangerous.

This proposal, which was issued by the Biden administration at the end of January 2024, will give American cloud service providers a deadline ending on April 29, 2024 to comment on it, before finalizing its terms and issuing it finally, as it requires companies to disclose the names of foreign customers and private IP addresses. Their information, along with other information, will place a burden on these companies, a burden not unlike the strict “know your customer” rules that govern the financial industry.

What worries Washington is that Chinese companies will access and benefit from the computing power of artificial intelligence chips, which they were previously banned from purchasing, through cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft's Azure, and Alphabet's Google Cloud.

America wants to ensure that it closes all avenues that the Chinese can use to access its models for training artificial intelligence, which is a matter of great concern to the Biden administration, which considers Beijing its primary global strategic competitor.

Although the new proposal presented by the Biden administration did not name any country or company, its goal is known to everyone, which is to prevent Chinese companies from using American computing power.

Insistence on stifling Chinese artificial intelligence

The head of the technology company, Mazen Al-Dakash, said in an interview with “Iqtisad Sky News Arabia” website that America, since the end of 2022, has prevented China from accessing the advanced chips that operate generative artificial intelligence technology.

These chips provide the high computing power that companies need in the process of operating this technology.

What America fears now is that Chinese companies will tamper with these procedures, by dealing with American cloud companies that provide training and hosting services for artificial intelligence, allowing Chinese companies to access the computing power necessary to operate this technology.

Already, American cloud companies have massive data centers and servers to train and host AI, giving Chinese companies access to the computing power they need to run this technology.

American cloud companies own huge data centers and servers for training and hosting artificial intelligence, powered by advanced chips that are banned from reaching China.

According to Al-Dakash, the new American proposal indicates the start of the next phase of the technological war between Washington and Beijing.

It confirms Washington's insistence on stifling Chinese artificial intelligence.

America's goal with the new step is clear, which is to close all loopholes that China can exploit to access this advanced technology.

He believes that America has previously repeatedly announced that the issue of generative artificial intelligence is related to the country's national security.

It will spare no effort in making any decision to ensure that China does not have access to this technology, at a time when China calls on America to cooperate in the field of artificial intelligence, instead of building walls.

Artificial intelligence and national security.

It has become known that America is stressing the necessity of depriving China of advanced artificial intelligence, which Beijing may benefit from, to achieve progress from an economic and even military perspective. All basic industries in the world will become supportive of this technology, starting with electrical appliances, mobile phones, and cars. Airplanes, communications networks, data centers, computers, production devices in laboratories, weapons systems and aircraft, all the way to missiles and nuclear weapons. Therefore, America considers this issue related to its national security and that China is not allowed to bypass it.

In turn, communications engineer Muhammad Shami said, in an interview with “Iqtisad Sky News Arabia” website, that what the American authorities are proposing to American cloud companies is that they inform them every time a non-American entity uses the platforms of these companies to develop large applications for artificial intelligence, and reporting about any suspicious activity in this regard, revealing that this procedure requires companies, such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, to take measures to collect information about the parties they deal with, and collecting detailed information about customers is difficult and expensive from a financial standpoint, and will cause high service costs, which may put... US cloud companies are at a competitive disadvantage, compared to the prices of services provided by foreign, non-US cloud companies.

Shami stressed that the new American proposal is still a draft, which means that it will be subject to major amendments based on the recommendations of American cloud companies, expecting that America will resort to applying its provisions, when officially approved, to all foreign cloud companies, not just American ones, just as happened when the law was passed. Preventing the arrival of advanced American chips to China, as we have seen that Japanese, Dutch, Taiwanese, and Korean companies have complied with American law, and therefore subjecting all cloud companies in the world, except the Chinese, to the new American rules, will prevent harm to the business of American cloud companies, which have greater capabilities in terms of Technology compared to its competitors.

According to Shami, the “Know Your Customer” system, which may be applied to American cloud companies, is a system similar to the one applied by banks, when it comes to penalties and anti-money laundering watch lists, and refers to a set of procedures and policies that companies implement to verify the identity, suitability, and integrity of their customers. To mitigate the risk of crimes committed by foreign actors, who may use artificial intelligence to launch malicious online activities.