Chris Miller of the Financial Times reports that security hawks in Washington are worried that infrastructure deals risk the future of AI. Miller writes:
If artificial intelligence systems transform the global economy, then the data centres that train them are the factories of the future. Governments around the world see AI-capable data centres as a strategic resource — one they are racing to control. The idea of high-powered computing as strategic is nothing new. During the cold war, the US permitted supercomputer sales to the Soviet Union only if they were used for weather forecasting, not nuclear simulations. These rules were enforced by requirements that the Soviets accept permanent foreign monitors and even hand over supercomputer data for analysis by US intelligence.
The idea of high-powered computing as strategic is nothing new. During the cold war, the US permitted supercomputer sales to the Soviet Union only if they were used for weather forecasting, not nuclear simulations. These rules were enforced by requirements that the Soviets accept permanent foreign monitors and even hand over supercomputer data for analysis by US intelligence. […]
Chips, clouds and data centres are intrinsically interlinked, so long as high-end, export-controlled chips give cloud computing companies the ability to deploy AI efficiently. The tech competition that started with silicon is now intruding into a new layer of the computing stack.
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