TMTPOST -- The Trump administration this week revoked a rule under former U.S. President Joe Biden to curb worldwide artificial intelligence (AI) chip exports.

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The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Tuesday the department initiated a rescission of the Biden administration’s AI Diffusion Rule (AIDR). Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffery Kessler has instructed BIS enforcement officials not to enforce the AIDR with compliace requirements that were set to come into effect on May 15.

“These new requirements would have stifled American innovation and saddled companies with burdensome new regulatory requirements. The AI Diffusion Rule also would have undermined U.S. diplomatic relations with dozens of countries by downgrading them to second-tier status, “ BIS said in a statement. The agency said it will issue a replacement rule in the future.  

 “The Trump Administration will pursue a bold, inclusive strategy to American AI technology with trusted foreign countries around the world, while keeping the technology out of the hands of our adversaries,”said Kesslar. “At the same time, we reject the Biden Administration’s attempt to impose its own ill-conceived and counterproductive AI policies on the American people.”

To scrap the AIDR can be deemed as a win for Nvidia and other chipmakers as the export caps under the rule were unveiled during Biden’s last week in office in January, as part of efforts from the Democratic administration to limit access to the chips needed to power cutting-edge AI. The rule, if enacted, is set to effectively eliminate backdoors for Chinese firms to circumvent existing U.S. export controls on high-tech.

The rule has the world divided into three tiers. Seventeen countries and the Taiwan island, at the top tier, would maintain essentially unmitigated access to American chips. And countries of concern like China and Russia in the third tier would be blocked from importing the chips. And the vast majority of the world, around 120 other countries are in the second tier and have to be subject to limits on how many AI chips they can get.