CHINA JUST LOCKED DOWN ITS AI BRAINS — EXPORTING THEM IS NOW BANNED OR LICENSED

China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology announced a draft plan, titled Announcement No. 48, to restrict exports of more than 40 cutting-edge technologies across solar manufacturing, artificial intelligence and biotechnology. Of the listed technologies, 14 would be prohibited from export entirely and 26 would be subject to restrictions, including next-generation solar-cell manufacturing, polysilicon production at scale, and some cell and gene therapy platforms.

On AI, the ministry said most technologies would remain freely exportable, but 23 key technologies covering foundation models, intelligent agents, computing clusters and information processing would be added to the control list, including technology capable of generating and mutating malicious code. Technologies already in the public domain through open-source publication or academic papers would generally be exempt, and open-source projects and overseas chip fabrication would be eligible for facilitation measures.