White House urged to double check Microsoft isn’t funneling AI to China via G42 deal

Two House committee chairs have sent a public letter to the White House asking it to look into a deal between AI R&D outfit G42 and Microsoft.

The missive [PDF] to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is authored by Reps Michael McCaul (R-TX) and John Moolenaar (R-MI), respectively the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The two Republicans warn the Microsoft deal raises the risk of advanced American AI technology making its way to China via G42.

“This deal may be one of the most consequential investments by a US technology firm in the Middle East in decades,” the letter reads. “Should this deal proceed further, we must be clear eyed about the risks.”

In April, Microsoft announced it would be pouring $1.5 billion into United Arab Emirates-based G42. The two House reps point out that UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Beijing to deepen his country’s ties with the Middle Kingdom, specifically in relation to AI.

G42 also found itself under the microscope for its ties to China less than a year ago, after it emerged US intelligence feared China and G42 were a little too friendly. House Reps scrutinizing the CCP have had their eyes on G42, too, having written a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in January raising concerns about the Middle-East operation.

Even the UAE’s AI minister has admitted that concerns over China getting its hands on US tech aren’t overblown, calling such worries “valid for any country that has adversaries.”

Both G42 and Microsoft have taken steps to convince the American authorities that everything is above board with their machine-learning partnership, and G42 says it has cut ties with China. Microsoft president Brad Smith said G42 wouldn’t be getting unfettered access to AI tech, saying processors and model customization tools to be used by the UAE lab would be located in a “vault within a vault.”

These measures didn’t convince McCaul, and clearly he remains unpersuaded that the risk is acceptably low. Though, neither he nor Moolenaar are explicitly asking the Biden administration to torpedo the deal. Instead, the letter requests an investigation into “the safeguards that will be in place to protect US-origin goods and technology, and other areas of ongoing national security concern.”

The Register asked Microsoft for comment on the letter, and Redmond said it’s “working closely with the NSC and Department of Commerce, and US national security will continue to be a principal priority.” We also asked G42 for comment. ®

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