News U.S. inks bill to force geo-tracking tech for GPUs and servers — high-end gaming GPUs also subject to tracking

[Admin]

A new bill introduced by Senator Tom Cotton would mandate that U.S. chipmakers like AMD, Intel, and Nvidia to embed location-tracking features in high-performance AI and HPC processors starting six months after enactment.

U.S. inks bill to force geo-tracking tech for GPUs and servers — high-end gaming GPUs also subject to tracking : Read more

 

[naylom]

Any thought be given how this bill will work when covered products bought by consumers in the EU? There are stricter laws on what personal information can be collected and where it can be held / accessed. I can see conflict between wanting to keep control over where the products end up and personal information freedoms as enacted for those outside the US.

 

[KyaraM]

Any thought be given how this bill will work when covered products bought by consumers in the EU? There are stricter laws on what personal information can be collected and where it can be held / accessed. I can see conflict between wanting to keep control over where the products end up and personal information freedoms as enacted for those outside the US.

Yupp, and I, for example, have strong reservations against some government being able to track my movements, especially a foreign one. Police here needs a warrant to track my phone, for example, but what about this? Doesn't sound like that protection applies here, honestly. Will it also affect laptops, which also have pretty high-end components inside nowadays? Is every business person on work travel being tracked by the US Government from now on? I seriously don't want that.

 

[NinoPino]

Any thought be given how this bill will work when covered products bought by consumers in the EU? There are stricter laws on what personal information can be collected and where it can be held / accessed. I can see conflict between wanting to keep control over where the products end up and personal information freedoms as enacted for those outside the US.

It will be managed with the usual privacy agreement to accept before use.

 

[NinoPino]

Somebody have any idea how a similar thing could be implemented ?
I suppose it cannot use internet for communication, because can be easily blocked.
What else ?
And to get the position there be the need of an antenna both with GPS and other wireless networks...

 

[naylom]

It will be managed with the usual privacy agreement to accept before use.

Can't see that working; what happens if you buy and then get asked when gpu first used and you then decline? Nightmare for the retailers handling returns. If you get asked at point of purchase how do they match purchaser to product and what happens if then resold, how do you track that / get consent for next owner? I'm guessing they don't care too much about the user but want to be able to track location and remotely disable if not in an approved country.

 

[wr3zzz]

I am sure after the "study" Tom Cotton will demand a remote kill switch to be added as well. The reason he is not asking now is because:
A. He doesn't know geo-tracking and remote kill switch is not that different.
B. He wants to hide behind the "study" so he can have some bodies to throw under the bus in case of public backlash. Like when kids getting arrested for bringing a top of the line gaming PC to China during vacation.

PS: "Inking" a bill usually means the bill has been passed which is not the case here and this is another example of how this place is becoming a clickbait site.

 

[Hooda Thunkett]

I am sure after the "study" Tom Cotton will demand a remote kill switch to be added as well. The reason he is not asking now is because:
A. He doesn't know geo-tracking and remote kill switch is not that different.
B. He wants to hide behind the "study" so he can have some bodies to throw under the bus in case of public backlash. Like when kids getting arrested for bringing a top of the line gaming PC to China during vacation.

PS: "Inking" a bill usually means the bill has been passed which is not the case here and this is another example of how this place is becoming a clickbait site.

Don't worry about backlash over the "confirmed spy from China trying to turn American schoolchildren into terrorists with their AI computers." There won't be any, because they and their parents and curious school friends will be quietly sent to Ecuador.

 

[NinoPino]

Can't see that working; what happens if you buy and then get asked when gpu first used and you then decline? Nightmare for the retailers handling returns. If you get asked at point of purchase how do they match purchaser to product and what happens if then resold, how do you track that / get consent for next owner? I'm guessing they don't care too much about the user but want to be able to track location and remotely disable if not in an approved country.

It is the actual situation of all software and hardware with license agreement.
If you don't agree, then you have wasted your money.

 

[bit_user]

I think software is one way they can try to implement it. Would work, for proprietary software, like CUDA. You could have the GPU support signing and refuse to load any firmware not signed by Nvidia. They could sign each CUDA download for a specific GPU serial number, so you can't use one download on multiple GPUs.

Then, in order to download it, they could try to use network-based location services and filter out known VPNs. I think there would be too many issues with that, not only with preventing legit downloads, but also hackers using bot nets to hijack machines in "allowed" regions, to host their downloads.

It might seem like open source would throw a wrench in this whole scheme, but all GPUs have firmware "blobs" (i.e. pre-compiled binaries) that the GPU can't run without. So, they could still lock down certain GPU functionality, so that it requires a signed firmware blob that's tied to your serial number.

Obviously, whatever signing method they use needs to have quantum-resistant encryption. Because, "you know who" has quantum computers.

 

[bill001g]

This is mostly just talk by a politician with little to no technical knowledge. When you consider they actually remove the chips from GPU boards to repurpose into their AI machines its not like you can do much to stop someone that is technically skilled at that level. Its not like these chips themselves are going to be able to read a GPS location and then connect to the internet to report their location.

In the end it will never become law it is another nothing news story. They can't pass law on much more important things and if they try executive orders someone will find a court to block it.

 

[parkerthon]

I don't understand how these cards will be tracked. They'd have to phone home somehow. Certainly not a wireless broadcast device in every one. So assuming it'll look for internet connectivity, TCP/IP. Yet it'd be pretty easy to block that traffic(assuming the farms of GPUs are even allowed access to the internet). And given that China excels at filtering internet traffic(i.e. great firewall of china), this would be trivial for them to detect and stop from ever leaving their country's ISP's. Almost assuredly so since the gpu makers will do that absolute minimum to comply and whatever mechnism they implement to comply will be half-hearted in design at best.

This is why people hate politicians. So much time and effort spent making an expensive, disruptive political statement meant to whip up their supporters that don't understand that this isn't really something that will work.

 

[HardwiredWireless]

Any thought be given how this bill will work when covered products bought by consumers in the EU? There are stricter laws on what personal information can be collected and where it can be held / accessed. I can see conflict between wanting to keep control over where the products end up and personal information freedoms as enacted for those outside the US.

Of course thought was given to that but they are not tracking people They are tracking products.

 

[HardwiredWireless]

I am sure after the "study" Tom Cotton will demand a remote kill switch to be added as well. The reason he is not asking now is because:
A. He doesn't know geo-tracking and remote kill switch is not that different.
B. He wants to hide behind the "study" so he can have some bodies to throw under the bus in case of public backlash. Like when kids getting arrested for bringing a top of the line gaming PC to China during vacation.

PS: "Inking" a bill usually means the bill has been passed which is not the case here and this is another example of how this place is becoming a clickbait site.

A bill that has passed is not being inked It is in fact a law already. That is the name for a bill that has passed.

 

[USAFRet]

A bill that has passed is not being inked It is in fact a law already. That is the name for a bill that has passed.

It has not passed the House.
It has not passed the Senate.
It has not been signed by the President.

Currently, it is a thought process.

"Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill ..."
"Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. "
"The bill, if supported by lawmakers"

 

[KyaraM]

I don't understand how these cards will be tracked. They'd have to phone home somehow. Certainly not a wireless broadcast device in every one. So assuming it'll look for internet connectivity, TCP/IP. Yet it'd be pretty easy to block that traffic(assuming the farms of GPUs are even allowed access to the internet). And given that China excels at filtering internet traffic(i.e. great firewall of china), this would be trivial for them to detect and stop from ever leaving their country's ISP's. Almost assuredly so since the gpu makers will do that absolute minimum to comply and whatever mechnism they implement to comply will be half-hearted in design at best.

This is why people hate politicians. So much time and effort spent making an expensive, disruptive political statement meant to whip up their supporters that don't understand that this isn't really something that will work.

And if they pass it and it gets implemented, the only people tracked are honest customers in whatever part of the world they live in... state surveillance.

 

[reflex25]

Well apart from the technical and legal issues highlighted above (can't access GPS, can't phone home (usually in a metal box) and tracking in foreign jurisdictions), just how long does anyone think it will take the Chinese to develop their own?

Incidentally the HP ZBook Ultra G1a (made in the far east) contains some impressive GPU's integrated in an APU and we had one delivered here in the UK last week! In this case the ship has literally already sailed.

 

[artag]

I'm sure China will be grateful for this added pressure to produce their own advanced GPUs, just as has happened with, for example, AI software and thermal camera hardware.
Sell your Nvidia shares now.

 

[Bamda]

Oh, a free upgrade.

 

[GenericUsername109]

Have these morons thought about the possibility of China simply building or renting their datacenters abroad, stuffing them with the latest AI hardware, then provide remote access from China? It's not like anybody actually sits right at their H200 hardware, anyway. It's practically always in a remote server.

 

[HardwiredWireless]

It has not passed the House.
It has not passed the Senate.
It has not been signed by the President.

Currently, it is a thought process.

"Last week, a U.S. congressman announced a plan to introduce a bill ..."
"Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas then introduced a legislative measure later in the week. "
"The bill, if supported by lawmakers"

I was just pointing out that inking a bill does not mean it has been vast It means it is being written at the time. If it bill is already written then it has been inked.

 

[HardwiredWireless]

I'm sure China will be grateful for this added pressure to produce their own advanced GPUs, just as has happened with, for example, AI software and thermal camera hardware.
Sell your Nvidia shares now.

Yeah just like America was so grateful to have added pressure to bring manufacturing back to its shores.

 

[KyaraM]

Yeah just like America was so grateful to have added pressure to bring manufacturing back to its shores.

I think the difference here is that China already has quite a bit of the infrastructure and production capabilities for than in place already, while the US... does not. Like, China has been working on their own GPUs and CPUs for years now.