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hardware-enabled governance mechanisms
webCredibility Rating
4/5
High(4)High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: RAND Corporation
A RAND workshop proceedings report relevant to compute governance and AI chip export control debates, offering multi-stakeholder perspectives on embedding governance directly into hardware infrastructure.
Metadata
Importance: 62/100conference paperanalysis
Summary
This RAND report summarizes findings from a 2024 expert workshop exploring hardware-enabled mechanisms (HEMs) in AI chips as tools for enforcing export controls, preventing unauthorized use, and supporting U.S. national security. Participants from AI/chip industries, civil society, and government assessed four HEM options for technical and political feasibility. Key takeaways include that simpler, narrower-scope solutions may be more practical and that HEMs could be valuable as conditions in international sales deals.
Key Points
- •Hardware-enabled mechanisms (HEMs) are security features in AI chips that can enforce policies on acceptable end-use, including export restrictions.
- •No single HEM solution can comprehensively enforce end-use controls; technically simpler approaches may offer more effective security.
- •Narrow-scope HEMs are more feasible to develop; broader designs pose greater security and misuse risks.
- •HEMs show promise as conditions attached to international chip sales and investment deals, supporting geopolitical governance goals.
- •The workshop gathered perspectives from AI industry, chip industry, civil society, and government to assess both technical and political feasibility.
Cited by 4 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Intervention Timing Windows | Analysis | 72.0 |
| AI Policy Effectiveness | Analysis | 64.0 |
| Hardware-Enabled Governance | Approach | 70.0 |
| Hardware Mechanisms for International AI Agreements | Analysis | -- |
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# Insights from a Workshop on Hardware-Enabled Governance Mechanisms
[Gabriel Kulp](https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/k/kulp_gabriel.html), [Margaret Siu](https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/s/siu_margaret.html), [Lennart Heim](https://www.rand.org/pubs/authors/h/heim_lennart.html)
Expert InsightsPublished Jun 12, 2025
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Hardware-enabled mechanisms (HEMs) are security features in artificial intelligence (AI) chips or related hardware that enact or enable policies on acceptable end-use. To assess HEMs’ potential in bolstering U.S. national security and supporting export controls on advanced AI chips, RAND researchers conducted a virtual workshop in April 2024 with 13 experts from AI and chip industries, civil society, and government. The workshop’s goal was to gather expert perspectives on the potential role of HEMs in AI governance, including their use in preventing unauthorized AI chip use, enforcing export restrictions, and detecting chip smuggling.
The workshop focused on four HEM options and included three activities to gather views on the technical and political feasibility of the four HEMs and possible HEM-based AI governance policies for advancing U.S. national security.
Interviewees shared opinions that no single solution can comprehensively enforce end-use controls, that technically simpler solutions may offer more effective security, and that HEMs could be promising as conditions of international sales and investment deals. During workshop activities, some participants noted that narrow-scope HEMs may be more feasible to develop, whereas broader designs could pose greater security and misuse risks.
These conference proceedings present these and other insights from the workshop and pre-workshop interviews. Though the
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