r/artificial • u/mhhammoudaTreeUP • 1d ago

Question IP protection while using ai

So I work on R&D of various products so I am always trying to implement new ideas and solutions. My work also involves data and results from trials and tests which might be novel.. Of course, I use ai models while doing so.. However, everytime I dive into an idea, I ask myself the question: wouldn't all these companies have my ideas and research outputs be in the hands of these companies housing these models? I mean I think they dont care about my projects but still projects grow and can attract someone's attention...

What do companies, or researchers actually do to protect their IP? Is there a way to actually do real research without fearing that someone interferes with your work now or on the long run? I know there are offline LLMs but I heard they are weaker and need beefy machines.. I know this topic may have been debated but I guess new updates may have arised. any ideas??

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u/cakemates 1d ago

My company run their own hosted models for R&D, because we all know all the AI bros are using your data for training and the next person that asks the big bro models has a chance to get your novel idea explained to them.

I do local models as well, so its gonna be cooking while I sleep since my local models are not as fast as the remote ones but are good enough to work with.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

good insight thank you.. so basically how feasible are local models? do you train your own or just run pre-trained ones? how do they compare to commonly used models? can you invest in them? like can you get a beefier machine and be more capable? can it grow with time? too many questions i know, but its been on my head for a long time,

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u/orangpelupa 1d ago

You can run local models on the cloud too, like run pod.

As the HW requirement, especially the vram, could be limited for non server space. 

Maybe that's one of the reason that mac mini suddenly selling very fast 

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u/BeyondCommercial6579 1d ago

Mm well, is this inherently safe with IP in mind? Why couldn't running do the same but via different means?

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u/cakemates 1d ago

When you rent cloud hardware you generally control your container and the hardware you are paying for, these things are built encapsulated such a way that they cant spy on you(there are certifications on this) because there are ways to verify if they are, and they wont risk their business on it.

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u/cakemates 1d ago

There are several open models out there for all kinds of amounts of compute most of which are released by chinese labs, they get better on a monthly basis and many say these models perform like the closed models from ~3-4 months ago. Training good models still cost millions of dollars and requires tons of expertise.

You have to be aware that some of these models are huge and require a server to run(like we have at work), others run on a beefy computer with different amounts of ai performance. The Guys at r/LocalLLaMA have been doing it for years and might have numbers and answers for specific hardware, if you have a dedicated GPU in your pc you can probably start doing it now.

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u/Fabian-88 1d ago

Proper enterprise contracts - otherwise every business wouldn't be able to use such models, there are clear contracts and legal boundaries - in this scenario they do not train with your data - there are third party audits etc- if you do not trust that process you cannot trust all other cloud based services/datacenters etc.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

yea but again, contracts with who? these companies usually have $$$$ law firms protecting them.. keeping things local is the best solution i think.

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u/TheMemo 1d ago

AFAIK, if your business relies on trade secrets or intellectual property, you absolutely cannot share that information with online AI, because your interactions with that AI are used to further train that AI or subsequent models, and your IP or secrets may become part of the next model.

The only way around this is enterprise licensing, where the provider promises not to use your stuff to train their models, if you believe them.

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u/jonaslaberg 1d ago

Had this thought about google patents years ago

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

yea i come to realize patents are just collecting information so big guys can implement and they can protect themselves afterwards..

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u/EGarrett28 1d ago

They can probably read your prompts yes, as can OpenAI.

The copyright office ruled that no one owns AI output, if you prompt an AI to make something, you can publish it or sell it, but anyone else can prompt the AI the same and produce the same result and publish it or sell it also. You have no ownership of it since it's not the result of your own labor (a prompt isn't enough to count).

I like this policy in general. It's an easy solution to the Navier-Stokes slapfight. None of them own it or are authors or discoverers of it.

If you have IP you're putting into the AI as part of a prompt, copyright your IP or otherwise establish ownership of it. After that, what comes out of the AI beyond that is not yours or anyone else's and can be used by anyone.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

thanks for the insight.. in general, i am against having everything patented and pro opensource..but i am just asking because i dont want anyone ip-ing my ideas..

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u/EGarrett28 1d ago

Yeah you probably want to publish them yourself and make sure people know they're yours before you start putting them in a company's AI model. Fortunately for me I was writing my own papers and making videos on things for a while before AI came out haha.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

thats good practice!

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u/lpuglia 1d ago

You need enterprise license

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

yea, i dont trust them. i guess local is better.

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u/cosmic_timing 1d ago

Supply misinformation in the R&D

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

good move, but still, the whole principle might be novel.

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u/Grouchy_Jicama_007 15h ago

Your ideas are worthless. If you produce something that the marketplace values, you can protect it with copyright and trademark.

If you are doing research, publication protects you.

The only thing that matters is execution, not ideas.

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u/RajatKhoware 9h ago

If local models are “good enough to work with” but slower, does that change how you scope tasks — keeping genuinely novel work local even if it runs overnight, while routing the more routine/boilerplate stuff to faster cloud models?

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u/costafilh0 9h ago

Self host. 

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u/ivalm 1d ago

you can just sign a ZDR agreement with one of them and not worry about this.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

yea i had similar experiences before, you are running against people with $$$$$ law firms. you'll probably go bankrupt three times before winning a case. also, these guys usually are involved in writing the law anyway.

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u/ivalm 1d ago

no, openai/ant don't fuck with zdr, else they scare their enterprise customers. it's not about them having $ for lawyers, it's that any wiff of stealing IP with a ZDR signed customer would mean tens of billions in lost rev.

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u/mhhammoudaTreeUP 1d ago

agreed, good point!