Edit 2, 12/17/2025 3:45am PT: Sipeed has contacted Tom's Hardware to dispute the researchers' claims. Sipeed says the microphone was listed on a Wiki page for the LicheeRV Nano at launch. The LicheeRV Nano is a development board used for the product. However, the microphone was not listed or mentioned directly on the NanoKVM Wiki page at launch. Instead, Sipeed linked to a document that detailed the LicheeRV Nano and its microphone. Sipeed has added a direct reference to the microphone on the NanoKVM Wiki page.
In response to the issues, Sipeed has now added a note about the microphone to its retail listing for the 'Developer Edition' models that include it. Sipeed has also notified its authorized distributors to update their listings. "Sipeed also notes that while the text description was missing on original retail pages, the high-resolution product images provided always clearly displayed the microphone component. There was never any intentional concealment of its existence," the company says.