Building the Blind Computer: Privacy Infrastructure for AI

In this episode, Sohejl sits down with Alex Page, Co-Founder and
CEO of Nillion to discuss decentralized AI and privacy-enhancing
technologies. Alex explains his motivation for working on privacy
tech, rooted in early lessons about government overreach and
reinforced by events like Edward Snowden's revelations and
Cambridge Analytica as well as the fundamental adoption
challenge: people claim to care about privacy but won't sacrifice
utility for it. Nillion's approach focuses on lowering barriers
for developers so they can build privacy-preserving applications
where the trade-off is minimal enough that consumers will choose
private options when functionality is equivalent.


Alex walks through Nillion's "blind computer" architecture, which
maintains data security during storage, transit, and computation.
The system combines multiple privacy-enhancing technologies –
multi-party computation (MPC), trusted execution environments
(TEEs), and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) – strategically
based on each technology's strengths and limitations.


The conversation examines the coming wave of smaller, specialized
AI models and agents that will require deep access to personal
data for email, credit cards, calendars, and more. Alex argues
that building privacy infrastructure now allows developers to
create these agents in ways that serve users rather than big tech
companies. He compares the current AI revolution to the
Industrial Revolution: ultimately beneficial for humanity but
disruptive during the transition. Nillion's upcoming Nil AI
module will provide developers with tools to build the next
generation of private AI applications and agents.


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Guest Links / Additional Material:


Alex Page Twitter: https://x.com/alex4only


Nillion Twitter: https://x.com/nillionnetwork


Nillion website: https://nillion.com/ 


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Timestamps:


00:00 – Introduction & Why Privacy Matters


01:25 – What is Decentralized AI?


06:11 – Privacy, Law & Healthy Skepticism of Power


09:09 – Joining Nillion & Privacy Infrastructure


10:10 – The Privacy Paradox: Why People Won't Trade Utility for
Privacy


13:52 – Nil GPT: A Private Alternative to ChatGPT


15:47 – What is Nillion? The Blind Computer


18:24 – Privacy Tech Stack: MPC, FHE, and TEEs


22:13 – Nillion Applications: Nil GPT and Nil AI


26:02 – Nil DB, Nil Compute & Decentralized Nodes


30:21 – How Encrypted Storage Works in Nil DB


32:08 – What's Next: Nil AI Module for Developers


34:30 – The Future of AI: Specialized Models & Privacy


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