Concern as Poland included on US list of countries with restricted AI chip exports

Jan 15, 2025 | Business, Politics

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

New US restrictions on the export of advanced computer chips and other artificial intelligence (AI) technology have caused concern in Poland, which has not been included by Washington among the “key allies and partners” exempted from the measures.

News that Poland will now face limits on how much tech it can import came just days after the digital affairs minister declared that he wanted the country to become a “European leader in AI”.

One of his deputies now says that the new measures introduced by the White House “constitute a long-term problem” for Poland in developing the sector.

On Monday, the Biden administration announced that it was “acting decisively” to “ensure that US technology undergirds global AI use and that adversaries cannot easily abuse advanced AI”.

It divided countries around the world into three categories: 18 close allies that would face no new restrictions; a second tier of countries that will have a cap on how much advanced tech they can import from the US; and a third group that is already banned from buying advanced chips and will now face further restrictions.

Poland, like most countries, now falls under the second tier. CNN reports that those measures have likely been introduced by the US to prevent China from indirectly accessing AI chips through third countries.

As such, Poland will only be able to import up to the equivalent of 50,000 advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), specialised processors that are used in training and running AI models.

 

However, the White House notes that countries can make agreements to double their chip caps if their policies on export controls, clean energy and tech security align with those of the US. “Trusted national entities” in such countries can also apply to import up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years.

Meanwhile, orders of up to around 1,700 advanced GPUs do not require a licence at all and will not count against countries’ chip caps.

Nevertheless, the new measures have caused concern in Poland and more broadly in the European Union, which is now divided between 10 countries in tier 1 and 17 in tier 2.

On Monday, the European Commission issued a statement expressing “concern about the US measures restricting access to advanced AI chip exports for selected EU member states and their companies”. It argued that Washington should treat the EU as an “economic opportunity for the US, not a security risk”.

Dariusz Standerski, a Polish deputy digital affairs minister, told broadcaster Polskie Radio that Poland currently uses less than 10% of the new import limit set by the US.

“While this year and next year this limit set by the US administration will not halt the development of AI in Poland, in the long term it constitutes a problem,” said the minister, who also revealed that the Polish embassy in Washington has asked the US administration for explanations about the new measures.

Piotr Sankowski, a computer scientist at the University of Warsaw who served as head of IDEAS NCBR, a state-funded research and development centre devoted to AI, also expressed concern about the new US restrictions.

“The tone of this document is unambiguous: yellow [tier 2] countries should forget about developing their own superintelligence,” he wrote on social media. “I do not understand how in this whole geopolitical configuration we found ourselves in the second category of countries.”

Poland’s government has been pushing for the country to become a major hub for the development of AI. In November, it announced plans to invest 1 billion zloty (€235 million) in the sector, including the development of a Polish large language model (LLM).

Last week, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told parliament that “Poland will become a European leader in building AI factories”, the first of which he said will be completed this year, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The minister also announced that a so-called AI Fund will receive 4.5 billion zloty this year, though Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading newspaper, notes that these are mainly EU funds that were going to be spent anyway and are also not earmarked solely for AI.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Fritzchens Fritz/Flickr (under public domain)

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