Nip chip smugglers by building trackers into GPUs, US Senator suggests

Despite stiff export controls on the legitimate sale of AI accelerators to China, stemming the flow of gray market GPUs streaming into the Middle Kingdom remains a point of concern for American lawmakers.

US Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) on Friday revealed his bright idea for stopping chip smugglers in their tracks: What if we just built tracking devices into the chips? That way we'd know right away if they ended up somewhere they shouldn't.

That's the gist of the Chip Security Act [PDF] Cotton introduced, which require the Secretary of Commerce to mandate that any exported advanced chips or products containing them be equipped with a "location verification mechanism" within six months of the bill passing - which we emphasize has not happened yet.

It would also require licensed exporters to report to the Bureau of Industry and Security if they learn that chips have been diverted, misused ...