Author: Alexandra Alper and Christopher Bean
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican lawmakers asked the Biden administration to invest in Microsoft Corp’s $1.5 billion investment in UAE artificial intelligence company G42, citing concerns about the transfer of sensitive technology and the G42’s historical ties to China. Conduct intelligence assessments.
Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and John Mueller, chairman of the Select Committee on China, made the request for the briefing in a letter to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday.
Republicans said they wanted to be briefed before the deal announced in April moves into a second phase involving export-restricted transfers of semiconductor wafers and model weights, complex data that improves the ability of artificial intelligence models to simulate human reasoning.
The letter illustrates growing concerns about a lack of regulation over exports of sensitive artificial intelligence models, as concerns grow that companies like G42 could share this valuable technology with U.S. adversaries such as China.
“We remain deeply concerned about the rapid action to advance a partnership involving an unprecedented transfer of highly sensitive U.S.-origin technology without consultation with Congress or the establishment of clear regulations,” the lawmakers said in the letter. .
They asked the United States to assess the G42’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, military and government before the Microsoft deal moves forward. They cited UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s recent visit to Beijing to discuss cooperation in artificial intelligence, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
Microsoft said in a statement that it was working closely with the U.S. government and that “U.S. national security will continue to be a top priority.” Spokespersons for the G42, the White House and the United Arab Emirates embassy did not respond to requests for comment.
The Chinese Embassy in the United States stated that the United States has repeatedly used unwarranted security reasons to undermine cooperation between Chinese companies and other countries.
Concerns about China
An aide to the House select committee told reporters on a call Thursday that based on conversations with Microsoft, lawmakers expect the U.S. company to export “otherwise severely restricted AI semiconductor wafers used to train models and AI model weights.” .
Microsoft President Brad Smith told Reuters in May that the G42 deal could ultimately involve the transfer of advanced chips and tools.
The Republican letter also lists the G42’s past “digital surveillance” work as an area of possible risk. The aide highlighted previous ties between G42 employees and DarkMatter, a UAE-based cybersecurity company that was the subject of a 2019 Reuters investigation into its cyber espionage operations.
The United States is increasingly concerned about China’s influence in the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates, a long-time U.S. ally.
But the G42 said in February it was divesting investments in China and accepting U.S. restrictions on its work with U.S. companies. G42 has previously invested or partnered in China with TikTok parent ByteDance, vaccine developer Sinopharm and BGO Genomics, a biotech company blacklisted by the United States.
The New York Times reported in April that the Microsoft-G42 deal was largely orchestrated by the Biden administration to exclude China. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told the newspaper that Microsoft’s deal did not authorize the transfer of artificial intelligence models or processors to G42 to develop artificial intelligence applications.
Like Microsoft, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, the country’s ruling family and U.S. private equity firm Silver Lake also hold stakes in G42, whose chairman Sheikh Tanu bin Zayed Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the UAE national security adviser and the brother of the president.
Reuters reported in May that the U.S. Department of Commerce was considering formulating rules to restrict the export of proprietary or closed-source artificial intelligence. Currently, there is nothing stopping American AI giants from selling them to almost anyone in the world without government oversight.
