Nvidia Builds Location Verification Tech That Could Track Where Its AI Chips End Up (reuters.com) 18
Nvidia has developed location verification technology that could determine which country its AI chips are operating in, Reuters reports, citing a source, a capability that may help address ongoing concerns about the smuggling of advanced semiconductors to restricted markets like China. The feature, which Nvidia has demonstrated privately in recent months but has not released, would be an optional software tool that customers install. It taps into the confidential computing capabilities of Nvidia's GPUs and uses the time delay in communicating with Nvidia-run servers to approximate a chip's location.
The technology will first be available on Nvidia's newest Blackwell chips, though the company is examining options for its older Hopper and Ampere generations. U.S. lawmakers and the White House have pushed for location verification measures as the Department of Justice has brought criminal cases against smuggling rings allegedly attempting to move more than $160 million worth of Nvidia chips to China.
The technology will first be available on Nvidia's newest Blackwell chips, though the company is examining options for its older Hopper and Ampere generations. U.S. lawmakers and the White House have pushed for location verification measures as the Department of Justice has brought criminal cases against smuggling rings allegedly attempting to move more than $160 million worth of Nvidia chips to China.
Next up (Score:4, Insightful)
Location-based DRM and over-the-air updates bricking your GPU randomly every week.
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And you thought it was bad when your cloud-dependant IoT device or game bit the dust when the server went away? Imagine a data center or AI based business going dark when Nvidia decides it's time for them to upgrade.
The Chinese will love this feature (Score:2)
Nothing like having phone home beacon in your imported tech.
How Fucking Cool?! (Score:3, Insightful)
So now you'll need to give your GPU internet access in order to allow it to function. How fucking cool is that?!?!
That's a hard pass for me, Bro.
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Where do you think cars are going? You already have to wait for permission to use your car as it boots up. And then there's the data tracking built into the vehicle which is relayed to third parties. This will only be the next step in people being given permission to use something they thought they purchased.
The eventual goal is to have people rent their PC or phone and all the software they use.
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But you are training AI without internet. Do you really think every node in the AI cluster or in the cluster rendering the next Pixar movie has internet access while doing its job?
Will this feature get into the Open Source driver? (Score:2)
Vaporware. If this feature doesn't make it into the Open Source driver so that I can know where my computer is, then I'm not going to buy any Nvidia hardware!
What's the point? (Score:2)
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I think it's more of a gamble that the 2nd gen chip is "better" than what China is currently manufacturing internally so they will continue to use our ecosystem, but the current Gen chip is enough better for the U.S./West to maintain an AI lead (if they have a lead at all.) By all accounts I've read, switching between architectures particularly for Transform operations requires system-level redevelopment, so keeping the competition hooked on our domestic architecture has a strategic advantage. Remains to
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where there is money to be made, there is a way.
art of deal baby
DRM breaks products and erodes consumer... (Score:1)
Soooo, customers track themselves? (Score:1)
That sounds stupid. Must be some political thing.
"optional software tool that customers install" (Score:4, Funny)
So... never?
Makes some bad assumptions, certainly (Score:2)
I guess they're doing a little more on top of NTP... get your time synced with a pool of time sources, and then check the difference with the designated gold server... and hope that they're not on starlink and you just bricked a customer's billion dollar datacenter running on their third-tier backup connectivity because copper thieves don't know the difference between copper and glass.
Thus Confirming that nVidia is Evil (Score:2)
China was already trying to discourageusing NVIDIA (Score:2)
Since China was already trying to get local chips used rather than NVIDIA, they'll probably be in favor of this move.
"taps into confidential computing capabilities" (Score:2)
Buyers beware. Nvidia chips are spyware enabled which record your every move and transmit it to Big Bro.