Commerce agency declines to control open-weight models in coming export rule

The Bureau of Industry and Security has prepared an interim final rule that notes the security benefits of open-weight artificial intelligence models after multiple federal agencies have recommended restricting access to AI model weights as a way to mitigate the risk of their misuse.

The rule, to be published imminently by the Commerce Department agency, would change Export Administration Regulations to generally require a license to export AI components such as Graphics Processing Unit chips and model weights to...