Microsoft has warned Donald Trump’s administration it risks making a “strategic mis-step” if it pushes ahead with export controls on artificial intelligence chips, which will push allies to use Chinese technology instead.
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, on Thursday said the US president should not go ahead with export controls on chips that are used to train and run AI models because they would adversely impact allies such as Israel, India and Singapore.
He said strictures, announced in the final days of Joe Biden’s administration and intended to come into force in May, would cause dozens of countries facing caps on American AI chips to buy from China.