Accelerating AI Data Center Security
AI systems are advancing at breakneck speed and already reshaping markets, geopolitics, and the priorities of governments. Frontier AI systems are developed and deployed using compute clusters of hundreds of thousands of cutting-edge AI chips housed in specialized data centers. These AI data centers are likely tempting targets for sophisticated adversaries like China and Russia, who may seek to steal intellectual property or sabotage AI systems underpinning military, industry, or critical infrastructure projects.
How AI Chips Are Made
Adapted from a section of a report by Erich Grunewald and Christopher Phenicie, this blog post introduces the core concepts and background information needed to understand the AI chip-making process.
Compute is a Strategic Resource
Computational power (“compute”) is a strategic resource in the way that oil and steel production capacity were in the past. Like oil, and like steel production capacity, compute is scarce, controllable, concentrated, and highly economically and militarily useful. Just as oil and steel were and remain strategic resources to some extent, compute is now also a strategic resource of very high importance.
IAPS Researchers React: The US AI Action Plan
The Trump Administration unveiled its comprehensive AI Action Plan on Wednesday. Experts at the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy reviewed the plan with an eye toward its national security implications. As AI continues to accelerate towards very powerful artificial general intelligence, our researchers discuss promising proposals for addressing critical AGI risks, offer key considerations for government implementation, and explore the plan's gaps and potential solutions.
A Whistleblower Incentive Program to Enforce U.S. Export Controls
A Whistleblower Incentive Program to Enforce U.S. Export Controls: "A program modeled on the successful SEC program would help America overcome its export control enforcement woes.”
Countering AI Chip Smuggling Has Become a National Security Priority: An Updated Playbook for Preventing AI Chip Smuggling to the PRC
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), in collaboration with the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy, has released a new working paper which catalogues evidence that substantial quantities of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips are being smuggled into China, undermining U.S. national security.
AI Chip Smuggling is the Default, not the Exception
If the US is serious about outcompeting China in AI, it needs to strengthen, not weaken, its AI chip export regime. A crucial first step is eliminating the widespread occurrence of AI chip smuggling.
Are Consumer GPUs a Problem for US Export Controls?
This report analyzes the potential impact of high-end consumer GPUs on the efficacy of US export controls on AI chips. It studies three stockpiling scenarios and what AI capabilities those may enable, and makes recommendations for policymakers.
Spreadsheets vs. Smugglers: Modernizing the BIS for an Era of Tech Rivalry
This blog post by Erich Grunewald (IAPS) and Samuel Hammond (the Foundation for American Innovation) argues that Congress should increase the funding of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Introduction to AI Chip Making in China
This primer introduces the topic of Chinese AI chip making, relevant to understanding and forecasting China's progress in producing AI chips indigenously.
Preventing AI Chip Smuggling to China
We link to a working paper which was led by Tim Fist of the Center for a New American Security, and coauthored with IAPS researcher Erich Grunewald. It builds on IAPS's earlier report on AI chip smuggling into China.
How Expertise in AI hardware Can Help with AI Governance
This article was written for the organization 80,000 Hours by an IAPS researcher. It discusses why and how it may be valuable to build expertise in AI hardware and use that expertise to reduce risks and improve governance decisions.
AI Chip Smuggling into China: Potential Paths, Quantities, and Countermeasures
This report examines the prospect of large-scale smuggling of AI chips into China and proposes six interventions for mitigating that.