Nvidia’s chief security officer has published a blog post insisting that its GPUs “do not and should not have kill switches and backdoors.” It comes amid pressure from both sides of the Pacific, with some US lawmakers pushing Nvidia to grant the government backdoors to AI chips, while Chinese officials have alleged that they already exist.
David Reber Jr.’s post seems pointedly directed at US lawmakers. In May a bipartisan group introduced the Chip Security Act, a bill that would require Nvidia and other manufacturers to include tracking technology to identify when chips are illegally transported internationally, and leaves the door open for further security measures including remote kill switches. While Nvidia is expecting to be granted permits to once again sell certain AI chips in China, its most powerful hardware is still under strict US export controls there and elsewhere.
“To mitigate the risk of misuse, some pundits and policymakers propose requiring hardware ‘kill switches’ or built-in controls that can remotely disable GPUs without user knowledge and consent,” wrote Reber Jr. “Some suspect they might already exist,” he continues, in a nod to a probe already launched in China over alleged “loopholes and backdoor” vulnerabilities in the H20 chips that have been sold in the country.
“There is no such thing as a ‘good’ secret backdoor,” Reber Jr. argues, “only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated.” He goes on to call kill switches “an open invitation for disaster,” before making it explicit that his intended audience is US policymakers: “That’s not sound policy. It’s an overreaction that would irreparably harm America’s economic and national security interests.”
Both Nvidia and the US government would like the company to be the dominant supplier of AI chips to China, but the suggestion of direct US access to the hardware might put that at risk. Chinese chip companies are steadily improving their performance and production capacity, as China looks for a homegrown alternative. That raises the possibility that Nvidia will be usurped in the market by Huawei, a company that knows a thing or two about losing market share over alleged government access.
