The Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) has strongly objected to its recent inclusion on the United States’ Entity List, labeling the move a mistake that could jeopardize international collaboration in artificial intelligence development.
The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) added BAAI to its updated trade blacklist as part of a broader strategy to restrict China’s access to critical technologies tied to national security. The expanded list now includes over 50 Chinese organizations, notably six affiliates of major cloud service provider Inspur Group.
U.S. firms are now banned from providing goods or services to these listed entities without prior government approval.
In a public response, BAAI described the U.S. decision as unjustified, emphasizing its identity as a non-governmental, non-profit research institution. “We are committed to the open development of artificial intelligence. Our research outcomes have been shared freely with the global scientific community,” BAAI said in a statement. “AI is a shared human advancement, and open-source collaboration is the future.”
Founded in 2018, BAAI has played a significant role in China’s AI landscape, engaging leading international academics and contributing to model development. It claims to have released around 200 open-source AI models that have been downloaded nearly 600 million times worldwide.
BAAI warned that the sanctions not only harm its mission but also undermine broader efforts to maintain openness and cooperation in the global AI sector.
