Subject: Issuance of Export Control Regulations Related to a Type of Artificial Intelligence Software
On January 6, 2020, the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) published an interim final rule to add a new worldwide (except Canada) unilateral export control on a type of geospatial imagery “software” “specially designed” for training Deep Convolutional Neural Networks to automate the analysis of geospatial imagery and point clouds, and having all of the following capabilities:
- Provides a graphical user interface that enables the user to identify objects (e.g., vehicles, houses, etc.) from within geospatial imagery and point clouds in order to extract positive and negative samples of an object of interest;
- Reduces pixel variation by performing scale, color, and rotational normalization on the positive samples;
- Trains a Deep Convolutional Neural Network to detect the object of interest from the positive and negative samples; and
- Identifies objects in geospatial imagery using the trained Deep Convolutional Neural Network by matching the rotational pattern from the positive samples with the rotational pattern of objects in the geospatial imagery.
Technical Note: A point cloud is a collection of data points defined by a given coordinate system. A point cloud is also known as a digital surface model.
What does this mean to Berkeley Lab?
Software that meets the capabilities described above would be designated with an U.S. Export Control Classification Number of 0D521 under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). EAR imposes a license requirement for the export and reexports of such software to all destinations, except Canada.
Please note that the new control only applies to software that meets the above capabilities and not the technology necessary to develop, produce or use it. This rule also does not apply to any commodities that benefit from or use such software.
What actions should you take?
If you are aware of any software at Berkeley Lab that meets the given definition, please contact the Export Compliance Office at exportcontrol@lbl.gov.