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Hugo Landau has written a blog post about why Intel will never let hardware owners control the Management Engine. The Intel Managment Engine (ME) is a secondary microprocessor ensconced in recent Intel x86 chips, running an Intel-signed, proprietary, binary blob which provides remote access over the network as well as direct access to memory and peripherals. Because of the code signing restrictions enforced by the hardware, it cannot be modified or replaced by the user.
Intel/AMD will never allow machine owners to control the code executing on the ME/PSP because they have decided to build a business on preventing you from doing so. In particular, it's likely that they're actually contractually obligated not to let you control these processors.
The reason is that Intel literally decided to collude with Hollywood to integrate DRM into their CPUs; they conspired with media companies to lock you out of certain parts of your machine. After all, this is the company that created HDCP.
This DRM functionality is implemented on the ME/PSP. Its ability to implement DRM depends on you not having control over it, and not having control over the code that runs on it. Allowing you to control the code running on the ME would directly compromise an initiative which Intel has been advancing for over a decade.
(Score: 4, Informative) by urza9814 on Tuesday July 24 2018, @02:52PM
They aren't stuck with it. Companies like Dell have publicly stated that they have specific models which they will only sell to government agencies or specific approved corporate buyers which have these features disabled. I'm sure Intel is cooperating with that, for the right price. Intel has also publicly stated that there are features in the management engine that were placed there specifically to be used by the NSA. So why should the government be concerned when Intel allows them to either remove or custom modify these features? The feds probably have source code and schematics. They don't care about any of this. They aren't going to save you.
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/260219-dell-sells-pcs-without-intel-management-engine-tradeoffs [extremetech.com]