WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2021) The Commerce Department needs to emulate the intelligence community by restricting sales of artificial intelligence (AI) technology by US companies to Chinese firms that supply their nation's People's Liberation Army (PLA), a group of Republican Senators said on Thursday.
"Despite the pressing need to restrict the PLA's advancement in key technology areas, our government has done little to impede the flow of US exports and investment to Chinese AI companies with PLA ties," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Thursday.
The letter noted that AI was among five technologies recently identified by the US Director of National Intelligence as key to the United States' strategic competition with China.
But of 273 Chinese companies recently identified by Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology from open-sources, only 8 percent are on the Commerce Department's "Entity List," with the remaining 92 percent free to purchase key US technology for use in military applications.
The lawmakers asked why all 273 companies listed as AI suppliers to China's military are not already sanctioned by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and whether there are any plans to add them to the list.
The letter was signed by US Senators Tom Cotton, Roger Wicker, Bill Hagerty, Marco Rubio and Bill Cassidy.
