NVIDIA Slams Backdoor In Scathing Dismissal Of AI Chip Kill Switches
NVIDIA is emphatically putting to rest the notion that it supports any industry push to equip its AI chips with backdoors or remote kill switches. In a new blog post titled "No Backdoors. No Kill Switches. No Spyware.," the chip designer outlines all the reasons why it thinks such mechanisms are a bad idea, which is reminiscent of when Apple boss Tim Cook went thermonuclear on the FBI over its push for backdoor access to iPhone devices following a mass shooting in San Bernardino.
What's bringing the idea of backdoors and kill switches to widespread attention this time around is the concern that supplying China and other foreign actors with AI silicon could present a risk to national security. It's the reason why there was an export ban on certain parts, namely NVIDIA's H20 chips, which was recently lifted after President Donald Trump met with Huang for a $1 million-per-plate dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
The blog post is also in response to Chinese accusations that NVIDIA's chips for China-based data centers contain kill switches. According to a report in The New York Times, China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, summoned NVIDIA to explain so-called "backdoor security risks" associated with its H20 chips.
In its blog post, NVIDIA claims in no uncertain terms that its GPUs "do not an should not have kill switches and backdoors."
"There are no back doors in NVIDIA chips. No kill switches. No spyware. That’s not how trustworthy systems are built — and never will be," NVIDIA says.
The blog post doesn't read as though its solely focused on putting China's concerns at ease, but also in response to any push by U.S. lawmakers to implement kill switches. To wit, Bill Foster, a former particle physicist and now a Democratic U.S. Representative, recently spearheaded a bipartisan bill to equip AI chips with GPS tracking technology to ensure that advanced silicon doesn't end up in the wrong hands, and to provide a mechanism that would prevent them from booting up if they do.
"NVIDIA has been designing processors for over 30 years. Embedding backdoors and kill switches into chips would be a gift to hackers and hostile actors. It would undermine global digital infrastructure and fracture trust in U.S. technology. Established law wisely requires companies to fix vulnerabilities — not create them," NVIDIA says.
From NVIDIA's standpoint, that policy was "universally held and beyond question" until recently. It points to the NSA's Clipper Chip initiative in the 1990s as an example of how things can and do go wrong when intentionally implementing backdoors. The Clipper Chip allowed for government backdoor access through a key escrow system, but was a flawed design.
"There is no such thing as a 'good' secret backdoor — only dangerous vulnerabilities that need to be eliminated. Product security must always be done the right way: through rigorous internal testing, independent validation and full compliance with global cybersecurity standards," NVIDIA says.
Do you agree with NVIDIA's stance on backdoors? Sound off in the comments section below.
