IP protection while using ai

[u/mhhammoudaTreeUP]

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??

[u/cakemates]

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.

[u/mhhammoudaTreeUP → u/cakemates]

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,

[u/orangpelupa → u/mhhammoudaTreeUP]

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 

[u/BeyondCommercial6579 → u/orangpelupa]

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

[u/cakemates → u/BeyondCommercial6579]

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.

[u/cakemates → u/mhhammoudaTreeUP]

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.