00:00 Speaker A
US chip companies, Nvidia, AMD sell advanced AI chips to China and whether this should be allowed. I don’t know if you saw the Anthropic CEO conversation with Bloomberg. Well, he said it was a mistake to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips to China. Well, I think that’s crazy, to say it’s kind of like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea. What do you think of these comments? Do you agree, Chris? Should we actually maintain restrictions on the export of such AI chips?
00:36 chris
Yes, I do see the comments and I think it’s a fair description. Look, I think the U.S. restrictions on China’s AI chip exports are the biggest difference between the U.S. and China and AI. If you look at the rest of the AI ​​stack, you know, data, talent, algorithms, uh power generation, applications, China is as good as we are, if not better. But the fact is, we have a huge lead in chips, AI computing and hardware. Given that this is the most important input in complex AI models, and the computational demands of these models are increasing dramatically. This is both the core of our advantage and the most important thing that the Chinese need to catch up with. There are bipartisan concerns in Washington over plans to sell artificial intelligence chips to China. In fact, you can look at the House Foreign Affairs Committee today, which voted 42 to 2 to kill a bipartisan bill that would have imposed strict restrictions on the sale of artificial intelligence chips to China, would have Congress oversee them the same way it oversees, uh, arms sales, and also ban the export of more advanced chips, Blackwell chips or similar products from other companies over the next two years. So, we’ll see where this legislation goes, but as it turns out, I think while the administration is pursuing a policy of selling AI chips to China, I’m not sure it’s necessarily in a stable equilibrium right now, where there’s real concern on both sides of the aisle that this might not be in the U.S. national interest.
02:08 Speaker A
What about Chris and me? I’m simplifying the argument. But you know the counter argument goes like this. Then, we should allow these artificial intelligence chips to be sold to China because we want Chinese consumers and Chinese companies. We want to keep them loyal, locked in, and committed to American technology. Chris, what are your thoughts on this?
02:30 chris
Yeah, so I have a few words to say in response. First, the Chinese government would never allow their companies to become obsessed with American technology, right? They will ensure that every AI chip in China is sold, and they will prioritize semiconductor production. You can see this in their determination to localize semiconductor production and their historical reluctance to accept U.S. dominance or Western dependence on the West for any strategic technology, especially semiconductors. The other thing I will say is, the idea that these chips are gooey and have this addictive quality, I think doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. The reason you know this is you can actually look at all the AI ​​labs and every one of them is now pursuing, uh, you know, training or running models on non-Nvidia chips. So what this shows is that actually with a lot of capital and a lot of dedication, you can actually change the ecosystem. And the Chinese government, if nothing else, has a lot of capital and a lot of dedication, and as soon as they can localize, they can shut down.
