From General Computing to Intelligent Computing to Secure Computing: Key Insights from the 2024 China Cryptography Society Cryptographic Chip Conference

On August 10, 2024, the China Cryptography Society held its 2024 Cryptographic Chip Academic Conference in Chengdu, with Ant Group Vice President and Chief Technology Security Officer Wei Tao serving as chair and delivering the keynote “From General Computing, to Intelligent Computing, to Secure Computing – Evolution and Outlook.”

Wei emphasized that cryptographic chips are the core foundation of information security, providing encryption, decryption, authentication, and key‑management functions, and that their advancement impacts personal privacy, enterprise data safety, and emerging sectors such as smart homes, medical devices, and autonomous driving.

He noted that the tension between data security and data fluidity is a central challenge in the digital era; AI’s rapid progress depends on massive high‑quality data, yet data collection, storage, and transmission raise privacy, sovereignty, and security concerns that can hinder AI development.

Wei called for stronger ethical guidance, legal regulation, technical transparency, and public education to ensure AI’s benefits while mitigating risks, advocating for explainable, fair AI, strict data‑protection measures, and interdisciplinary cooperation.

He described data as a new production factor with high value and high risk, explaining that valuable data (personal privacy, corporate secrets) is also attractive to illicit markets, and that excessive risk discourages data sharing.

To address these challenges, technologies such as multi‑party secure computation, federated learning, trusted execution environments, confidential computing, and data sandboxes have emerged, though their security guarantees and evaluation criteria are still being explored.

Recent breakthroughs include the 2023 “Data Cross‑Domain Governance Whitepaper” by East China University of Political Science and Law and Ant Group, and the 2024 AI Conference releases on privacy‑computing product security grading and personal information anonymization, which promote controlled anonymization and universal security grading.

Ant Group’s “YinYu Trusted Privacy Computing Framework” has open‑sourced a full‑stack confidential computing capability covering the entire stack from chip to industry‑level applications.

Wei outlined three future directions for cryptographic chip technology: (1) Recognizing data as a core asset that requires robust protection, with market demand driven by cloud computing, IoT, blockchain, and 5G, projecting a trillion‑level market size; (2) Advancing chip design by integrating deep cryptographic theory, semiconductor manufacturing, secure design principles, and adversarial thinking to improve algorithms, hardware efficiency, and resistance to physical and side‑channel attacks; (3) Strengthening collaboration among universities, research institutes, and enterprises to accelerate R&D and technology transfer through joint labs, projects, and training bases.

Overall, the development of cryptographic chips is a systemic engineering effort that demands interdisciplinary cooperation, policy support, and sustained innovation to safeguard information security in the digital age.