By Jeremy Kun
Publication Date: 2026-08-14 00:00:00
Today we’re excited to showcase HEIR, the latest powerful tool added to our Private Computing Toolkit. HEIR is an open source compiler that unlocks cryptographically-secure private AI inference.
Homomorphic encryption
As new benefits emerge with the growth of AI, balancing privacy and security is top of mind. Standard protections like end-to-end encryption present a trade-off: user-data can be protected from data breaches, but then the service provider cannot provide features that depend on the data, such as spam or virus detection. Critical sectors like healthcare and finance are even more averse to these risks, and strict regulations limit data sharing across institutions. Alternative mechanisms to provide the same features, like local processing, are limited by the capabilities of the local device and the sensitivity of the service provider’s IP. Shipping proprietary AI to a device risks leaking the model.
A solution to these issues is homomorphic encryption, a rapidly maturing…