Jeff Pao
Beijing has asked Nvidia to explain whether its H20 artificial intelligence chips have backdoors that could allow the United States to position and remotely shut them down. Chinese pundits said similar probes could be extended to other American-made chips. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) stated on July 31 that it summoned US tech giant Nvidia over security risks related to its H20 AI chip, which had been sold to China. Nvidia’s AI chips have been alleged to pose serious security risks, and some US lawmakers have called for advanced chips exported abroad to be equipped with ‘tracking and positioning’ functions,” said the CAC.
The CAC said in a press release that American AI experts have confirmed that the “tracking and positioning” and “remote shutdown” technologies of Nvidia chips have matured. It requested that Nvidia explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding this issue. On the same day, Nvidia said its chips do not contain backdoors that would allow anyone to access or remotely control them. It said cybersecurity is critically important to the company. Beijing’s summoning of Nvidia came after Reuters reported on July 29 that Nvidia had placed orders for 300,000 H20 chipsets (worth about US$3.6 billion) with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) a week earlier.
In April, the US government stopped Nvidia from shipping its H20 products to China. When Republican US Senator Tom Cotton introduced the “Chip Security Act” on May 9, the bill received little to no significant media attention at the time. The bill requires AI chips to be subject to export regulations and mandates that products containing these chips be equipped with location-tracking systems to aid in detecting diversion, smuggling or other unauthorized use. It received support from bipartisan lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
“As Congress’s chip designer, AI programmer and PhD physicist, I know we have the technical tools to prevent powerful AI technology from getting into the wrong hands,” said Congressman Bill Foster. “With advanced AI chips being smuggled into China and posing a national security risk, Congress must act.” Following meetings between US and Chinese officials in London on June 9, China agreed to resume shipments of rare earth minerals to the US. In return, the US agreed to allow Chinese firms to use its electronic design automation (EDA) software and resume the shipment of H20 chips and C919 flight engine parts to China.
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