Offline licensing is a technical mechanism for compute governance that could be used to prevent unregulated training of potentially dangerous frontier AI models. The mechanism works by disabling AI chips unless they have an up-to-date license from a regulator. In this report, we present a technical design for a minimal version of offline licensing that could be delivered via a firmware update. Existing AI chips could potentially support offline licensing within a year if they have the following (relatively common) hardware security features: firmware verification, firmware rollback protection, and secure non-volatile memory. Public documentation suggests that NVIDIA's H100 AI chip already has these security features. Without additional hardware modifications, the system is susceptible to physical hardware attacks. However, these attacks might require expensive equipment and could be difficult to reliably apply to thousands of AI chips. A firmware-based offline licensing design shares the same legal requirements and license approval mechanism as a hardware-based solution. Implementing a firmware-based solution now could accelerate the eventual deployment of a more secure hardware-based solution in the future. For AI chip manufacturers, implementing this security mechanism might allow chips to be sold to customers that would otherwise be prohibited by export restrictions. For governments, it may be important to be able to prevent unsafe or malicious actors from training frontier AI models in the next few years. Based on this initial analysis, firmware-based offline licensing could partially solve urgent security and trade problems and is technically feasible for AI chips that have common hardware security features.

翻译：离线许可是一种用于计算治理的技术机制，可用于防止未受监管的潜在危险前沿AI模型训练。该机制通过禁用AI芯片（除非芯片持有监管机构颁发的最新许可证）来运作。本报告提出了一种可通过固件更新实现的轻量化离线许可技术方案。现有AI芯片若具备以下（较为常见的）硬件安全特性——固件验证、固件回滚保护及安全非易失性存储器——则可能在一至两年内支持离线许可。公开文档显示，英伟达H100 AI芯片已具备上述安全特性。在未进行额外硬件修改的情况下，该系统易受物理硬件攻击影响，但这类攻击可能需要昂贵设备，且难以在数千颗AI芯片上可靠实施。基于固件的离线许可方案与基于硬件的方案具有相同的法律要求和许可审批机制。当前实施固件方案可加速未来更安全的硬件方案的最终部署。对AI芯片制造商而言，实施该安全机制可能使原本受出口限制禁止销售的芯片得以面向特定客户。对各国政府而言，在未来数年内阻止不安全或恶意行为者训练前沿AI模型至关重要。基于初步分析，固件离线许可可在部分程度上解决紧迫的安全与贸易问题，且对具备常见硬件安全特性的AI芯片具有技术可行性。