A bipartisan group of US senators, including prominent Republican China hawk Tom Cotton, on Thursday unveiled a bill that would block the Trump administration from loosening rules that restrict Beijing’s access to artificial intelligence chips for two-and-a-half years.
The bill, known as the SAFE CHIPS Act, was filed by Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and Democrat Chris Coons.
It would require the Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, to deny any license requests for buyers in China, Russia, Iran or North Korea to receive US AI chips more advanced than the ones they currently are allowed to obtain for 30 months.
After that, Commerce would have to brief Congress on any proposed rule changes a month before they take effect.
“Denying Beijing access to [the best American] AI chips is essential to our national security,” Ricketts said in a statement.
The legislation, which was co-sponsored by Republican Dave McCormick and Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Andy Kim, represents a rare effort led in part by Trump’s own party to stop him from further relaxing tech export restrictions on China.
