By Alexandra Alper
WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Senators of both parties will unveil a bill on Tuesday aimed at countering Chinese sales of artificial intelligence tools overseas, according to a copy seen by Reuters.
The legislation, sponsored by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, would create an office within the State Department to subsidize purchases by allied governments of American technology and streamline the procurement process. If passed, a fund worth $500 million would be created to help finance the program.
The legislation, details of which Reuters is reporting for the first time, would seek to bolster the Trump administration’s Pax Silica initiative. That effort aims to reduce dependence on China and strengthen cooperation among allies, by securing access to critical minerals and other key AI supply chain inputs.
“Foreign government partners are increasingly turning towards strategic competitors like… China to procure cyber and digital technologies due to their low-cost,” the bill reads.
That creates “supply-chain vulnerabilities” like “dependence on strategic competitors whose governments may compel access to data, networks, or systems, undermining the cybersecurity and strategic autonomy of the procuring government,” the document says.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The legislative effort also comes as China poured a record $213 billion last year into its Belt and Road initiative, its flagship overseas infrastructure program, according to research by Australia’s Griffith University and the Green Finance & Development Center in Shanghai.
Unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2013, that initiative aims to boost trade, absorb overcapacity, secure supply chains and project influence with more than 150 countries and international organizations.
The U.S. bill, set to be unveiled on Tuesday, would seek to ease foreign government procurement of American AI models, chips and other related software and hardware, as well as telecoms equipment, cybersecurity products, biotechnology, and cloud computing systems among other things.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper in WashingtonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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