Nvidia strongly: „There are not and will not be any backdoors in our AI chips”

Nvidia has addressed concerns from U.S. lawmakers aiming to crack down on alleged AI chip smuggling between the United States and China. Nvidia is pushing back against the proposed measures, according to the company’s Director of Security, David Reber Jr. In a blog post, Nvidia laid out its stance on the controversial issue (see The Verge).

Nvidia doesn't want kill switches in their GPUs

The issue of these regulations first came up back in May of this year. The proposed law would force chipmakers like Nvidia to track where their components end up, so authorities could trace them if they’re smuggled. At the same time, manufacturers would need to build in special access points, allowing authorities to remotely disable a device if necessary.

Right at the start of his post, David Reber Jr. makes it clear he’s against such measures:

The specialist also noted that some of the comparisons being made are completely wrong. Some people pointed to smartphones as an example, noting their “find my phone” and remote data wipe features - but Nvidia argues those are nothing like what’s being proposed for graphics cards. David Reber Jr. argues the comparison doesn’t hold up, since those phone features are controlled by the user, not a third party. It’s a different story with GPUs, where the lock would be controlled by the manufacturer:

The expert stated that such an approach is not a sensible policy. Deliberate weakening of essential infrastructure is not part of it. The final decision lies with the politicians, and we will find out whether the so-called The Chip Security Act will come into effect, or whether Nvidia and other developers will manage to reject it.

• Nvidia
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• AI / Artificial Intelligence