'Do we have to alienate everybody?' White House AI chief says Biden hurt Gulf ambitions

David Sacks highlights recent US-UAE data centre plans

David Sacks, crypto and AI tsar under President Trump, criticised the Biden administration's approach to AI at Pennsylvania's Energy and AI Summit on Monday. Getty Images

The White House cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence adviser has blamed the Biden administration for stifling Middle East technology ambitions, particularly in the AI space.

David Sacks made the comments on Tuesday during a round-table discussion at the Pennsylvania Energy and AI Summit, which President Donald Trump is scheduled to attend.

He said former President Joe Biden’s push to increase export controls that limited access to processing units to pro-AI countries, such as the UAE, had been an unwarranted burden.

After months of intense talks, plans were unveiled for a 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI campus in Abu Dhabi. Photo: G42

Those export controls sought to prevent countries such as China from taking the lead in the AI arena, but other nations, many of them US allies, were disproportionately affected by the policies.

“We already have hostile relations with a country on one side of the Persian Gulf,” Mr Sacks said, referring to Iran. “Do we have to alienate everybody?”

Alleviating some of these concerns, however, was Mr Trump’s announcement in May during a visit to the UAE of a partnership in the form of a new 5-gigawatt UAE-US AI campus.

Proponents of the deal highlighted security guarantees that would prevent the misuse of US technology, CPUs and GPUs.

“I know that our Gulf state partners will honour our security agreement,” Mr Sacks said. He added that stories of chip smuggling to other countries were overblown and oversimplified.

A model of the UAE-US AI Cluster during its launch ceremony at Qasr Al Watan. UAE Presidential Court

“The stories give people the impression that the chips are like diamonds in a briefcase that can be smuggled,” he explained.

“They're not, they're mainframe computers, it’s not easy.” Mr Sacks added that inspectors can easily keep track of servers at data centres to ensure that US technology is accounted for.

He also accused the Biden administration of placing too many burdens on US tech companies with the executive order that sought to put guardrails on AI development by emphasising data privacy and labour protection. Mr Sacks pointed out that in the days after the inauguration, Mr Trump rescinded Mr Biden’s executive order.

Ahead of the conference, Nvidia, which has been a vocal critic of export control policies under the Biden administration, announced that following meetings with Mr Trump and other US officials, the company would soon be able to sell its Nvidia H20 GPU in China again.

“Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the company said.

Also taking part in the summit was Khaldoon Al Mubarak, managing director and chief executive of UAE-based Mubadala Investment Company, who highlighted Mubadala’s push to have an AI member as a consultant on its investment committee.

“The AI co-pilot that sits with us in the committee with all the board members, and all the investment committee members, obviously gets to interact directly,” he said.

Mr Al Mubarak said the UAE's economic history – from the rise and fall of the pearl industry that preceded a boom in oil and natural gas that helped propel the country to unprecedented prosperity – serves as a compass as it navigates its AI ambitions.

“At some point, this [oil and gas] was going to be disrupted, and I think that was the wise approach that our leadership and my government took,” he said, pointing out the UAE’s push over the last decade to invest in AI.

Mr Al Mubarak highlighted the creation of the UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) – where he currently serves as chairman of the board of trustees – in 2019 as proof the country was ahead of the curve in identifying AI as an economic game-changer.