Keeping Up With China: CFIUS and the Need to Secure Material Nonpublic Technical Knowledge of AI/ML

Authors

Anthony Severin

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies will shape societies by the values they are programmed to respect. In part because of anti-competitive Chinese practices such as forced transfers of intellectual property (IP), companies based in the U.S. have lost the ability to compete in several fields. To avoid losing competitiveness in AI/ML sectors, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should promulgate rules blocking Chinese investors from acquiring ownership interests in U.S. companies when that ownership would allow access to material nonpublic technical knowledge of AI/ML. Such a categorical blacklist approach will limit forced transfers of IP and increase the influence of American values on the development of AI/ML technology.

Citation

Anthony Severin, Keeping Up With China: CFIUS and the Need to Secure Material Nonpublic Technical Knowledge of AI/ML, 19 Duke Law & Technology Review 59-74 (2021)