Comment by perihelions
2 years ago
Sure: if the US government declared a critical defense need for ML GPU's, they could lawfully order Nvidia to divert production towards that. That is not the case here–that's not what this Executive Order says. We're talking about the software models: ephemeral, cloneable data. Not scarce materiel.
Moreover. USGov is not talking about buying or procuring ML for national defense. It's talking about regulating the development and sale of ML models–i.e., ordinary commerce where the vendor is a private company, and the client is a private company or individual. This isn't what the DPA is for. This is plainly commercial regulation, a backdoor attempt at it.
These are good points! And looking at DPA’s history it seems most of its uses and especially its peacetime uses are more about granting money/loans rather than adding restrictions or requirements.