3 ms·

So much inefficiency just to run it on someone else's untrusted hardware. Private AI is already possible today with local open-weight models running on hardware

So much inefficiency just to run it on someone else's untrusted hardware. Private AI is already possible today with local open-weight models running on hardware you control. Homomorphic encryption is cool technology, but I'm really not sure what problem it solves.

firtoz 1mo ago
It's so that they can sell more things to enterprise customers
furkanturan 1mo ago
There are many challenges we need to solve for privacy preserving compute. Legislations, legal matters, key management, HSM like devices that has limited compute capabilities. At Belfort, we are accelerating FHE, besides exploring such uses cases for FHE. Like this one with Google, we also have publishes use cases; https://belfortlabs.com/blog/encrypted-fraud-detection-with-swift https://belfortlabs.com/blog/encrypted-fraud-detection-with-... https://belfortlabs.com/blog/belfort-partners-with-lg-on-encrypted-advertising-recommendations https://belfortlabs.com/blog/belfort-partners-with-lg-on-enc...
- snovv_crash 1mo ago
  The advertising case seems to be solved by local models as well, then the data doesn't even need to be sent to the server. The Swift one is interesting, but I don't understand why the transaction needs to be encrypted, or more specifically why the model can only run in the encrypted part of the pipeline. Super cool tech, but I guess I just don't see the application yet. And wow, I worked with Marc a decade ago, small world.
  - furkanturan 1mo ago
    Regarding the SWIFT example, transactions between banks across countries go through SWIFT’s infrastructure and are encrypted for regulatory and security reasons. Banks and financial institutions operating at this scale are also required to use HSMs (Hardware Security Modules) to meet security and compliance standards, ensuring that sensitive data is processed securely. Suggesting alternative approaches to such large corporations is not straightforward. Their IT and security teams cannot afford to risk handling sensitive financial data in plaintext. No manager would readily approve a solution that offers additional functionality at the cost of deviating, even slightly, from well-established compliance practices. Encryption is therefore fundamental to how these systems operate. The challenge arises when these institutions need to perform computations or checks on such encrypted data. Decrypting the data, even under controlled conditions and with trained personnel, is operationally complex, introduces additional risk, and can create a significant compliance burden. This is where FHE offers a compelling solution. We demonstrate how a check can be performed directly on encrypted transactions against a known blacklist, without requiring the underlying transaction data to be decrypted. P.S. It is great to work with Marc :)
neya 1mo ago
I bet this would've been ground breaking if this was an announcement from Apple though.
- stanmancan 1mo ago
  To be fair, Apple and Google are on opposite sides of the "respects user privacy" spectrum.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
- wseqyrku 1mo ago
  tomato tomato.

firtoz 1mo ago

It's so that they can sell more things to enterprise customers

furkanturan 1mo ago

There are many challenges we need to solve for privacy preserving compute. Legislations, legal matters, key management, HSM like devices that has limited compute capabilities. At Belfort, we are accelerating FHE, besides exploring such uses cases for FHE. Like this one with Google, we also have publishes use cases; https://belfortlabs.com/blog/encrypted-fraud-detection-with-swift https://belfortlabs.com/blog/encrypted-fraud-detection-with-... https://belfortlabs.com/blog/belfort-partners-with-lg-on-encrypted-advertising-recommendations https://belfortlabs.com/blog/belfort-partners-with-lg-on-enc...

snovv_crash 1mo ago
The advertising case seems to be solved by local models as well, then the data doesn't even need to be sent to the server. The Swift one is interesting, but I don't understand why the transaction needs to be encrypted, or more specifically why the model can only run in the encrypted part of the pipeline. Super cool tech, but I guess I just don't see the application yet. And wow, I worked with Marc a decade ago, small world.
- furkanturan 1mo ago
  Regarding the SWIFT example, transactions between banks across countries go through SWIFT’s infrastructure and are encrypted for regulatory and security reasons. Banks and financial institutions operating at this scale are also required to use HSMs (Hardware Security Modules) to meet security and compliance standards, ensuring that sensitive data is processed securely. Suggesting alternative approaches to such large corporations is not straightforward. Their IT and security teams cannot afford to risk handling sensitive financial data in plaintext. No manager would readily approve a solution that offers additional functionality at the cost of deviating, even slightly, from well-established compliance practices. Encryption is therefore fundamental to how these systems operate. The challenge arises when these institutions need to perform computations or checks on such encrypted data. Decrypting the data, even under controlled conditions and with trained personnel, is operationally complex, introduces additional risk, and can create a significant compliance burden. This is where FHE offers a compelling solution. We demonstrate how a check can be performed directly on encrypted transactions against a known blacklist, without requiring the underlying transaction data to be decrypted. P.S. It is great to work with Marc :)

neya 1mo ago

I bet this would've been ground breaking if this was an announcement from Apple though.

stanmancan 1mo ago
To be fair, Apple and Google are on opposite sides of the "respects user privacy" spectrum.
- deleted 1mo ago
  [deleted]
wseqyrku 1mo ago
tomato tomato.