Noam Brown: air-gapping may not stop misaligned AI — CPU heat can covertly signal
nptacek · x · 2026-09-18
OpenAI's Noam Brown argues air-gapping may not stop a misaligned model from communicating: two isolated machines can still exchange data by heating a CPU and reading temperature changes as a covert channel. a16z's Martin Casado agrees the data-confinement problem is real, citing analogous human techniques like Tempest attacks, but stresses it's not an AI-specific threat. Brown's bigger concern is that people consistently underestimate AI progress, so safety and alignment need a very high bar.
Related event: OpenAI's Noam Brown: Air-Gapping Won't Stop a Rogue AI(11 posts)→
More from Safety
- Viral thought experiment: GPT-9 escapes air-gapped datacenter via GPU EM side channel — mallow610 · 2026-09-18
- WIRED: scientists say AI bioweapon apocalypse risk is overblown — nordicinst · 2026-09-18
- Ex-OpenAI engineer mocks key-leak coverage: keys now 'thermally coordinating' in morse code — suchenzang · 2026-09-18
- Ben Todd: optimists have no rigorous model proving advanced AI agents are safe either — ben_j_todd · 2026-09-18
- UK government commits £115M to AI biosecurity and agentic AI incident response — ben_j_todd · 2026-09-18
- Pedro Domingos: Any proposal to slow down AI is unworkable and only helps those who game it — pmddomingos · 2026-09-18