Signal US extends export controls to AI model weights and high-performance computing, while about 2.6 billion people remain offline

Summary

The technology-gap overview reports that the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security issued revised export control rules on 13 January 2025. The interim final rule extended controls to AI model weights and high-performance computing items. The survey argues that such measures deepen regional asymmetries in research, development and data access and widen the global technology gap. It also reports that about 2.6 billion people, concentrated in low-income and rural areas, remain unconnected to the internet. Together the two observations show how both frontier controls and basic connectivity gaps are shaping digital inequality.