FCC Blocks Two Gadgets Over Huawei-Linked AI Chip

The Federal Communications Commission has prohibited the sale and marketing of a dashboard camera and a wireless video transmitter in the United States. This action marks the first enforcement under a new rule that allows the agency to ban products based on the specific chips inside them, rather than just their brand or model number.

Both devices contain the Hi3516CV610 UHD Smart Vision system on a chip. HiSilicon is a subsidiary of Huawei, a company currently listed on the FCC's Covered List of entities posing a national security risk. The new rule aims to close a gap where rebranded products containing parts from restricted Chinese manufacturers could still reach the market. By targeting the silicon itself, the FCC no longer needs to issue separate bans for every individual product label or variant.

The Hi3516CV610 is designed for surveillance and camera applications. It includes WiFi, Ethernet, video encoding hardware, an Arm Cortex-A7 processor, and a neural processing unit for artificial intelligence tasks. The FCC focused on the NPU because it contains logic-bearing smart components made by a Covered List entity. According to the chip's technical specifications, this unit runs an Intelligent Video Engine that uses a built-in multimodal large model and transformer feature acceleration.

This AI capability allows the device to track relationships between objects across video frames. The system maintains attention on subjects such as pets, faces, human figures, and parcels. For a consumer, this feature could distinguish between a pet escaping a yard and an unknown person taking a delivered package. The FCC argues that the same logic-bearing AI could potentially be used to survey US citizens and log faces for foreign surveillance purposes.

Huawei has a history of regulatory friction in the US. The company previously used shell companies to secure the manufacturing of AI chips from TSMC while US officials requested the foundry stop supplying certain Chinese customers. That episode was one of several controversies leading to product bans in the country. The recent FCC action follows that pattern, applying the new silicon-level standard to two specific consumer gadgets.

Market reactions to the move have been mixed. Some observers view the ban as protectionist, questioning if US surveillance methods differ significantly from foreign ones. Others have debated the scope of FCC authority, with one commenter noting that the Communications Act of 1934 directs the agency to protect both wired and wireless communications. Another argued that basing bans on silicon was the logical approach from the start, given the many regional variants and revisions a single product can undergo.