Please, just add a physical switch to disconnect the microphone and camera and even battery! Why the hell do we need special chips to do this? Every chip can be hacked... internet hackers can't turn on physical switches...
This is the point of the article. There is no software involved. It can’t be hacked.
Please, Apple, instead of engineering a better kill switch which requires me to trust you, just install an actual kill switch that I can see for myself does what I want.
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/14/apple-class-action-user... or https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/09/apple-privacy-tracking-lawsui...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/23/iphone-...
Others have replied to the specifics here, but I'd like to add that "every chip can be hacked" is just categorically false (unless you also allow for physical access for "hacked", but then that would apply to the physical switch as well).
"Chips" are neither magical devices, nor are they necessarily running something akin to software, or controlling everything purely through software even if they do.
As a simple example, you can be very confident that a (real) ROM is a ROM, and that its contents cannot be changed by software.