Microsoft-UAE AI Partnership Sparks National Security Concerns
Microsoft President Brad Smith has stated that the company’s deal with UAE-backed AI firm G42 may involve the transfer of advanced chips and tools. However, a senior Republican congressman has raised concerns about the potential impact on national security.
Smith said the sales accord, many details of which are being reported here for the first time, could progress to a second phase that entails exporting crucial components of AI technology such as model weights, a crown jewel of AI systems that determine how powerful they are. Smith said there is no firm timeline for the second phase.
U.S. officials have said that AI systems could pose national security risks, for example 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 U.S. government.
To move forward, the deal would require the approval of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Microsoft executives said the agreement has safeguards to protect Microsoft’s technology and prevent it from being used by Chinese entities to train AI systems.
But those measures have not been made public, and some U.S. lawmakers question whether they are adequate.
The closed-door nature of the negotiations between two private companies over the terms and safeguards on transfers of U.S. technology has alarmed some lawmakers.
“Despite the significant national security implications, Congress still has not received a comprehensive briefing from the executive branch about this agreement,” Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, said. “I am concerned the right guardrails are not in place to protect sensitive U.S.-origin technology from Chinese espionage given the (Chinese Communist Party’s) interests in the UAE.”
The Commerce Department already requires notifications and, in several regions, export licenses to send AI chips abroad. But the Microsoft-G42 deal highlights gaps in U.S. laws as regulators rush to keep up with fast-moving technology.
At present, for example, there is no regulation restricting the export of AI models, though McCaul and a bipartisan group of lawmakers this week advanced legislation that would give U.S. officials more explicit power to do so.
Microsoft executives said the company welcomes a debate on a new legal framework governing the transfer of AI technology and that the deal with G42 requires the UAE firm to comply with U.S. regulations as they evolve.
“Fundamentally, what we’re focused on is trying to ensure that American technology can move around the world safely and securely,” Smith said.
BEYOND UAE
When Microsoft and G42 announced the deal last month, it was billed as drawing G42 closer to the U.S. and spreading U.S. technology influence amid strategic competition with China. Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in G42 with Microsoft’s president, Smith, taking a seat on its board.
The companies did not give details about which technologies might be transferred to the UAE or other countries or which specific security safeguards would be put in place. Some of those details are being reported here for the first time.
