US to block AI chip exports?

The US government previously put export restrictions in place to prevent NVIDIA and AMD from selling their advanced AI chips to China, and to stop 40 countries from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia from indirectly selling these AI chips to China. This was because the US and its allies in the Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, wanted to protect the technological advantage US AI chips gave the US over the global AI industry and to stop China from competing with them, with US-made, advanced AI chips.

Now, the US government is, reportedly, considering imposing similar sanctions to stop the sale of AI chips from NVIDIA and AMD to Persian Gulf countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are investing heavily in AI: Saudi Arabia has a $40B fund for AI, and OpenAI was previously in talk with a UAE investor who was interested in its recent $6.6B funding round. 

There is a growing concern, from US officials, about the influence the Persian Gulf could have over the AI industry. It’s worried about how certain countries are using AI technology and how this may impact US intelligence activities, so is considering imposing an export restriction to curb these advancements.