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By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) - Seven Republican U.S. senators have sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging him to scrap a Biden administration rule restricting global access to AI chips before it kicks in next month.
The letter, signed by senators Pete Ricketts, Tommy Tuberville and Thom Tillis, argues that the AI diffusion rule will damage U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence and calls for "immediate action" to halt it before it takes effect on May 15. The letter, whose contents were made public on Monday, was sent on Friday.
"Every day this rule remains in place, American companies face mounting uncertainty, stalled investments, and the risk of losing critical global partnerships that cannot be easily regained," said the letter, which was also signed by senators Markwayne Mullin, Ted Budd, Roger Wicker and Eric Schmitt.
"We urge you to withdraw this rule and propose an alternative that is effective in preventing Communist China from capturing the world market in leading technology without compromising American advantages," the lawmakers wrote.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the letter is a sign of lingering divisions within the Republican Party between those hoping to relax global restrictions on U.S. AI chip shipments and hardliners who prioritize the danger that China might access the prized technology.
The letter says the structure of the rule, which splits countries into three tiers, puts only 18 nations in a group with the easiest access to American technology, and adds that they must comply with burdensome regulations. It also points out that partners and allies like Israel are excluded from the top tier.
The letter notes that the vast majority of countries fall into the second tier, which it says "face arbitrary purchase limits and a cumbersome licensing process." Tier 3 countries, including China, are already "rightly restricted," it says.
It would be difficult for U.S. companies to comply with the constraints, the senators wrote, and even harder for the U.S. government to enforce.
The restrictions also would incentivize buyers, especially in Tier 2 countries, to turn to China's "unregulated cheap substitutes," the letter says.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)
