Intel secures AI agents at the edge for autonomous ride performance

Atsign and Intel reported an approximately 8,700% performance improvement for hardware-accelerated, end-to-end encrypted agent communications using the Agent2Agent (A2A) standard, achieved by combining Atsign's zero-trust agentic AI architecture with Intel hardware-backed key generation, encryption, and hashing. Atsign said the tests showed an almost 88-times uplift on Intel Xeon reaching up to 5 Gb/s and a 60-times uplift on Intel Core Ultra 9 reaching up to 6 Gb/s. Atsign CEO Aparna Rayasam said the Intel partnership provides a "genuinely secure foundation for agentic edge AI deployments in smart transportation environments," and Atsign joined Intel's Industrial Builders partner program alongside the work.

An Intel partnership claimed to have solved encryption bottlenecks stalling AI agents working on the edge, with possible ramifications for the burgeoning autonomous vehicle use case. The effort saw zero exposure security platform Atsign merge an agentic AI architecture with Intel hardware-backed key generation, encryption, and hashing. The results reportedly saw improved performance by approximately 8700% for hardware-accelerated, end-to-end encrypted communications using the Agent2Agent A2A standard. https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/google-linux-foundation-push-open-standard-for-ai-agents/ The venture aims to solve the critical security risks inherent in distributed environments running AI workloads, including exposed keys, untrusted devices, sensitive data exchange, and workflow tampering. It also tackles the performance slowdown that comes with cryptographic operations. On the software front, Atsign provided identity management, namespace isolation, scoped data sharing, end-to-end encryption, along with auditability. Together, these ensured agents were managed with default data privacy and a zero trust approach. The hardware side also included protected key storage, secure boot, and trusted compute tech from Intel. Intel’s Total Memory Encryption was also utilized, along with Full Disk Encryption to help ensure data protection and platform integrity. According to Atsign, an almost 88-times performance uplift was seen with Intel Xeon up to 5 gigabits per second Gb/s , and a 60-times uplift with Intel Core Ultra 9 up to 6 Gb/s. The two firms framed the test results as advancing the burgeoning edge AI use case of smart cities via autonomous transport: think Waymo robotaxis, Toyota e-Palette self-driving shuttle buses, and the autonomous vehicle testing powered by Ericsson https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/sk-telecom-to-test-ai-ran-physical-ai-for-south-korea-build-out/ as South Korea builds out its AI infra through SK Telecom. The silicon side has seen edge AI chip vendors like Blaize sign various smart city contracts in the Asia region, with some starry Nokia support to boot. https://www.sdxcentral.com/news/nokia-and-blaize-bolster-ai-infra-for-apac/ Aparna Rayasam, CEO of Atsign, said the Intel partnership provided a “genuinely secure foundation for agentic edge AI deployments in smart transportation environments,” helping AI-enabled devices “operate autonomously at the edge, where both trust and speed are essential." A former SVP of engineering for Palo Alto Networks, F5, and Akamai, Rayasam has led the San Jose-headquartered Atsign since April. The firm was co-founded in 2019 by current CTO Colin, with a specialization in zero-trust connections across networks without opening inbound public internet ports. HPE and BT veteran Constable founded the firm alongside Barbara Tallent and another BT executive, Kevin Nickels. Alongside the partnership, Atsign joined Intel’s Industrial Builders partner program, offering Intel users access to Atsign's pre-validated solutions and a gateway to connect with Atsign for requests for proposals RFPs , reference architectures, and proof-of-concept deployments.