AI industry dodged open-source restrictions from Biden’s BIS due to free speech concerns

Given more time, Alan Estevez, who led the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security during the Biden administration and issued the AI diffusion rule days before leaving office, would “definitely” have sought to control open-source AI, but time ran short to gain congressional backing to allay concerns about broaching the First Amendment.

“I definitely would have delved into open source,” Estevez said during a March 6 event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project on AI, compute, and...