Comment by U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)

As the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has assessed, AI models have the potential to enable advanced military and intelligence applications; lower the barriers to entry for nonexperts to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD); support powerful offensive cyber operations; and assist in human rights violations, such as through mass surveillance. [...] For example, a dual-use AI model trained on data describing the functions and mechanics of chemical compounds or biological sequences could lower barriers to the development of chemical or biological weapons by providing protocols and troubleshooting information that would enable nonexperts to design and produce such weapons at low cost. [...] Additionally, BIS is not imposing controls on the model weights of open-weight models. [...] BIS has also determined that, for now, the economic and social benefits of allowing the model weights of open-weight models to be published without a license currently outweigh the risks posed by those models. [...] Accordingly, BIS and its interagency partners are not today imposing controls on open-weight models.