Just now! New US regulations restrict AI software exports to China! These companies will be affected

Latest update time：2020-01-06

Reads：

According to Reuters and other overseas media reports, the Trump administration took measures on January 3 to restrict the export of artificial intelligence software to China and other countries . The new regulations will take effect on January 6.

(Photo source: Huanqiu.com)

"Under new rules that take effect on January 6, U.S. companies that export certain geospatial imagery software will have to apply for a license to send it overseas, except to Canada, " Reuters reported .

Restricting the export of such artificial intelligence software is one of the means for the United States to prevent sensitive technology from being mastered by rival countries.

Sensors, drones and other companies are affected

According to the document, target recognition software used in intelligent sensors, drones, satellites and other automated equipment (whether civilian or military) is within the scope of the restrictions.

According to the document, the geospatial image "software" to be restricted is mostly used to train deep learning convolutional neural networks to automate geospatial image analysis and other tasks. Such software includes the following features:

Provides a graphical user interface that enables users to identify objects (e.g., vehicles, houses, etc.) and extract positive and negative samples of objects of interest from geospatial images and point clouds;

Reduce pixel variations by normalizing the front samples by size, color, and rotation;

Train a deep convolutional neural network to detect objects of interest from positive and negative samples;

Objects in geospatial images are identified by matching the rotation patterns in the positive samples with the rotation patterns of the objects in the geospatial images using a trained deep convolutional neural network.

(Image source: Federal Register)

In fact, the United States has already begun to implement technological controls on China's AI. Following ZTE and Huawei, in October 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce included eight Chinese artificial intelligence companies, including Hikvision, Dahua, Megvii, iFlytek, and SenseTime, on the Entity List, and stipulated that companies such as Nvidia and Intel are not allowed to sell chips to these companies.

AI is gaining momentum in my country

At present, China is one of the most important markets for artificial intelligence software in the world. Since 2015, China's top-level design of artificial intelligence has been gradually improved, and relevant policies have been introduced intensively.

According to IDC's Global Artificial Intelligence White Paper, global AI spending will reach RMB 275.8 billion by 2020. China's AI technology spending will reach RMB 32.5 billion by 2020 , with a five-year compound growth rate of 32.8%, accounting for about 12% of the global total spending.

The "2019 China AI Enterprise Intellectual Property Competitiveness Top 100" released by Hurun Research Institute has conducted a quantitative evaluation of more than 500 mainstream Chinese AI companies. According to the list, China has gradually become the main source of patent applications in computer vision, natural language processing, and machine learning. As of 2018, the total number of patent applications by Chinese companies in these three fields ranked first in the world .

The development of AI in China has always received extensive attention from foreign media. The British weekly The Economist once reported that to understand why China has performed so well in the field of AI, we need to consider the input end of AI. From the two most basic elements of computing power and capital , China has abundant resources. According to the Financial Times website, McKinsey Chairman and Global President Dominic Barton believes that China has great potential in the field of AI, and one of the most fundamental reasons is that it has massive amounts of data . With the improvement of computing technology and the development of mobile Internet, more data can be collected, and AI is turning from a concept into an applicable reality.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, China's AI industry is booming, but it has not yet formed a complete industrial chain, so the US export control is likely to have a certain impact on China's related industries. Breaking through the bottleneck and making AI truly landed, the industry development has a long way to go!

Today's Topic

Some readers believe that if the US restricts the export of AI software, it will further stimulate China's independent research and development capabilities. What do you think? Welcome to leave a message to discuss!