"Catch All Rules" as Solution to AI Export Controls

Emily S. Weinstein and Kevin Wolf, in their publication for Georgetown University's CSET, propose the application of existing U.S. "catch-all" export controls to manage the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4.

They highlight the dual-use nature of these technologies and their potential military applications. They argue that the Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) "catch-all" controls, part of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), could be an effective tool to mitigate potential misuse of AI and LLMs, particularly in the context of weapons development or battlefield deployment.

"There is, however, a third leg of the export control compliance stool that is well known to compliance professionals, but not as much discussed in the think tanks or the media—the end-use “catch-all” controls. These controls were created in the early 1990s to regulate the export, reexport, and transfer of widely available items that were still nonetheless useful in the development, production, or use of missiles, chemical and biological weapons, or nuclear weapons. They “catch all” exports of unlisted items for these types of end-uses. 

Specifically, EAR sections 744.2, 744.3, and 744.4, prohibit any U.S. or foreign person from exporting, without a license, any type of commodity, software, or technology that is U.S.-origin (or in some cases, foreign-origin) to a foreign country, if there is “knowledge” that the item will be used directly or indirectly in the production, development, or use of:

• Nuclear energy or explosives;
• Rocket systems, missiles, certain unmanned aerial vehicles; or 
• Chemical or biological weapons.

For the full discussion see the article CSET [link]