Chinese entities are reportedly utilising cloud services from companies such as Amazon to access advanced US artificial intelligence (AI) chips and AI capabilities, which are otherwise restricted for direct export to China, reports Reuters.
This method of access does not violate US regulations, as it does not involve the direct export or transfer of the technology.
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A review by Reuters of public tender documents revealed that at least 11 Chinese entities have sought such restricted US technologies or cloud services in the past year.
Four of these entities specifically mentioned Amazon Web Services as a provider, albeit accessed through Chinese intermediaries.
Shenzhen University, for instance, spent approximately $27,996 (199,804 yuan) through Yunda Technology to access NVIDIA A100 and H100 chips via AWS for an undisclosed project.
These chips, crucial for powering large-language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are banned from export to China.
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By GlobalDataNeither Shenzhen University nor Yunda Technology responded to requests for comment, and Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.
Zhejiang Lab also expressed intentions to spend on AWS for its AI model, GeoGPT, due to insufficient computing power from domestic provider Alibaba.
However, Zhejiang Lab later stated it did not complete the purchase and did not elaborate on how it met its computing requirements.
The report noted that the US government is aware of such practices and is attempting to tighten regulations to restrict cloud-based access to its technology.
Legislation has been introduced to allow the commerce department to regulate remote access to US technology, and a proposed rule would require US cloud services to verify and report users of large AI models.
“AWS complies with all applicable US laws, including trade laws, regarding the provision of AWS services inside and outside of China,” a spokesperson for Amazon’s cloud business was quoted by the news agency as saying.
US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul told Reuters, “I have been worried about this loophole for years, and it is high time we address it.”
In addition to Amazon, Chinese entities are also seeking services from Microsoft.
Sichuan University’s tender document indicated plans to build a generative AI platform using Microsoft Azure OpenAI tokens, supplied by Sichuan Province Xuedong Technology.
Microsoft, Sichuan University, and Sichuan Province Xuedong Technology also did not offer comment on the matter.
OpenAI stated that its services are not supported in China and that Azure OpenAI operates under Microsoft’s policies, without commenting on the tenders.
Furthermore, the University of Science and Technology of China’s (USTC) Suzhou Institute of Advanced Research listed a tender for 500 cloud servers, each with eight Nvidia A100 chips, fulfilled by Hefei Advanced Computing Center.
The cloud service provider was not named, and USTC, which is on the US ‘Entity List’ for acquiring technology potentially aiding China’s military, did not respond to requests for comment.
