WASHINGTON: The US government has approved the export of advanced artificial intelligence chips to a Microsoft-operated facility in the United Arab Emirates as part of the company’s highly-scrutinised partnership with Emirati AI firm G42, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two people familiar with the deal.

Microsoft invested $1.5 billion in G42 earlier this year, giving the US company a minority stake and a board seat. As part of the deal, G42 would use Microsoft’s cloud services to run its AI applications.

The deal, however, was scrutinised after US lawmakers raised concerns G42 could transfer powerful AI technology to China.

They asked for a US assessment of G42’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, military and government before the Microsoft deal advances.

The approved export licence requires Microsoft to prevent access to its facility in the UAE by personnel who are from nations under US arms embargoes or who are on the US Bureau of Industry and Security’s “entity list”, the Axios report said.

The restrictions cover people physically in China, the Chinese government or personnel working for any organisation headquartered in China, the report added.

Officials in Washington fear that AI systems could pose national security risks, including by making it easier to engineer chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The Biden administration in October required the makers of the largest AI systems to share details about them with the government.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2024