Google is making private AI practical with homomorphic encryption
u1hcw9nx · 476 points · 280 comments · ayer · Open original
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SAsabretooth1405ayer
My master's thesis is on a topic in this field (Privacy Preserving ML) and from my understanding HE and other techniques have very high overheads(~10^3) on inference tasks and thus aren't very commercially viable.
WSwseqyrkuhace 16 minutos
It's "private" "cloud" computing all over again, this time brought to you by jensen et al.
SNsnovv_crashhace 13 horas
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.
MEmeindnochayer
Great, private AI, at the cost of >1000x the resource usage. Because apparently AI companies weren't already using quite enough energy to cook the planet.
The most private AI is the one running on my own hardware, not in some giant data center.
NEnever_inlinehace 18 horas
I think you folks are reading too much into it. I think the people working on FHE need to publish an AI-oriented pitch to retain funding from AI-pilled execs. Must be the same case with the golang post few days ago.
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5 preview comments · loading full threadLog in to h4cker, then connect Hacker News to publish comments.
My master's thesis is on a topic in this field (Privacy Preserving ML) and from my understanding HE and other techniques have very high overheads(~10^3) on inference tasks and thus aren't very commercially viable.
It's "private" "cloud" computing all over again, this time brought to you by jensen et al.
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.
Great, private AI, at the cost of >1000x the resource usage. Because apparently AI companies weren't already using quite enough energy to cook the planet. The most private AI is the one running on my own hardware, not in some giant data center.
I think you folks are reading too much into it. I think the people working on FHE need to publish an AI-oriented pitch to retain funding from AI-pilled execs. Must be the same case with the golang post few days ago.