Overbroad Emerging Tech Controls Would Be 'Disaster,' Commerce Official Says

A Commerce Department official allayed concerns from the U.S. industry that new export controls on emerging technologies will be overbroad, saying it will only look to control a "slice" of categories of technologies, not whole classifications.

Speaking on a panel at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference in Washington June 28, Matt Borman, Commerce’s deputy assistant secretary for export administration, said overbroad controls “would be a disaster” for both U.S. exporters and the Commerce Department. “We are not looking to publish a rule that has an export classification number that is artificial intelligence,” Borman said. “But is there some slice of artificial intelligence -- high-end dual-use, if you will -- that may warrant control?” He said Commerce is “in the midst of that process right now,” adding that the agency is first focusing on export controls for A.I., quantum computers and “advanced manufacturing.”

During the panel, Borman touched on several aspects of Commerce's export control process for emerging and foundational technologies, briefly explaining what Commerce hopes the scope of the controls will be, speaking about the agency’s plans for more multilateral enforcement and discussing the “intellectual challenge” that foundational controls present.

Borman said Commerce most wants to hear in public comments how it can regulate the technologies with U.S. industries in mind. “How do we describe it with the best specificity so that industry that wants to comply can comply?” Borman said. While Borman said Commerce wants to pinpoint technologies that are important for national security that “might warrant” more controls, the agency also doesn’t want to impose too-strict controls that “encourage it to be offshored or decreases the innovation and competitiveness in this country.”

Borman also said Commerce is making more of an effort to collaborate with foreign governments on emerging and foundational tech controls. He said Commerce has “already begun” discussing the controls with “some of our closest allies.” Commerce is prioritizing conversations with “supplier governments” who are the “most important,” Borman said. “It’s certainly possible that there may be something we do with just the supplier governments because those are the ones that matter the most.”

As Commerce is combing through feedback and working on the new controls, Borman said, foundational tech has proven “in some ways harder” than emerging tech. “We’re not looking for things that we don't know about. We’re looking at things we do know about and saying, ‘should we do something more with it than we did beforehand?’” Borman said. “And that’s intellectually in some ways more challenging to figure out.” Borman said Commerce is still “working through” that process, and said it hopes to have an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on foundational technologies in the coming “weeks.”

Borman also said Commerce hopes to create a technical advisory committee for emerging technologies “later this summer or early this fall,” with about 25 members. “We’ve already had quite a bit of interest,” he said. “But we’re finally getting close to getting that constituted.”