The Chip Security Act introduced in the US House of Representatives aims to address reports of US export-controlled AI chips being smuggled into China.
US officials across presidential administrations have sought to clamp down on their export to China, but news organisations have documented how some of those chips have continued to flow.
“In order for the United States to maintain our technological advantage, we must employ safeguards to help ensure export controls are not being circumvented, allowing these advanced AI chips to fall into the hands of nefarious actors,” Representative Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who introduced the House bill, said in a statement.
Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, introduced a similar bill in the US Senate last week. The House bill was co-led by Representative Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat, who was a physicist before becoming a legislator and designed several of his own chips during his scientific career.