WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden will welcome United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to the White House on Monday for talks on issues ranging from the war in Gaza, Sudan and responsible artificial intelligence development.
White House spokesperson John Kirby said the visit would be the first-ever by a president of the Gulf Arab country to Washington, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris would meet separately with the UAE leader.
The United States has been increasingly concerned about the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries becoming a conduit for advanced US AI technology reaching China, which it fears could use the technology to bolster its military.
Last year, the Biden administration imposed sweeping new curbs on AI chip exports in a bid to cut off more avenues for China to obtain them, slapping a licensing requirement on their shipment to the UAE and other Middle Eastern countries.
But Microsoft's $1.5 billion investment, announced in April, in UAE-based artificial intelligence firm G42 has fueled concerns among China hardliners in Congress as to whether those controls go far enough.
Republican lawmakers asked the Biden administration for an intelligence assessment of the deal over concerns the US company planned to export the otherwise severely restricted AI semiconductor chips to train models as well as AI model weights.
G42 said in February it divested its investments in China and was accepting constraints imposed on it by the United States to work with US companies.
Currently, nothing is stopping US AI giants from selling AI model weights to almost anyone in the world without government oversight, though Reuters reported in May that the Commerce Department was considering rules to restrict the export of proprietary or closed-source AI.
The meetings would also focus on climate, clean energy and UAE's role as a partner in the Group of Seven's global infrastructure partnership, Kirby told reporters.