U.S. mulls barring US firms from selling AI cloud services to China

The U.S. Department of Commerce is preparing to implement a ban on U.S. companies ability to provide cloud services that employ advanced artificial intelligence processors to Chinese companies, Computer World reports. The planned ruling, which would affect major firms including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, would prevent Chinese entities from circumventing export restrictions on advanced chips that are used in AI training by gaining access to them through paid cloud services, according to national security experts. The ban is the latest in an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries over the sale of technology and network-related hardware that supporters claim is crucial to protecting the U.S. from technology theft and safeguarding the country's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. China has responded in kind by prohibiting the export of rare metals gallium and germanium, which are used in semiconductor manufacture, and earlier imposing a ban on products from memory chip manufacturer Micron.