AntChain announced a new collaboration with Intel to launch AntChain Massive Data Privacy-Preserving Computing Platform (MAPPIC), a new privacy-preserving computing (PPC) platform that brings a data privacy protection solution for large-scale AI machine learning.
As a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, MAPPIC is based “on the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology and provides petabyte-scale AI training data protection capability.”
Powered by Ant Group’s open-source TEE operating system Occlum and Intel’s open-source framework BigDL PPML, MAPPIC enables developers “to deploy major distributed AI frameworks and components in TEE with minimal software adaptation.”
In this collaboration, Intel provides hardware “support for MAPPIC, including TEE hardware capabilities such as Intel® Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) for Confidential Computing, and high-performance BigDL distributed machine learning libraries, while AntChain brings MAPPIC secure, high-efficient, and easy-to-use computing services, including security technologies such as application security audits and distributed key management, and the technical support of scenario-based configuration and Web3 interaction capabilities.”
Looking ahead, AntChain plans “to deploy more trusted hardware, such as Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (Intel® TDX) for virtual machine isolation and heterogeneous hardware accelerators with MAPPIC.”
Zhang Hui, Chief Technology Officer of Digital Technology Business at Ant Group, said:
“We are excited to join hands with Intel to launch MAPPIC. Over the past several years, Ant Group has been dedicated to the exploration and development of privacy-preserving computing technologies such as TEE, to enable secure and reliable industry collaboration in Web3, AI and other technology areas.”
Dr. Wei Li, Vice President and General Manager of Artificial Intelligence and Analytics at Intel, noted:
“We are pleased to work with AntChain to launch MAPPIC, which will provide users with innovative solutions for data privacy protection. As a leader in the chip industry, Intel has been committed to working with partners to promote the development of cutting-edge technologies and applications, and we look forward to further cooperation with AntChain in the future.”
In May 2020, AntChain announced “a collaboration with Intel, leveraging blockchain and semiconductor technologies to make it easier and cost-effective for SMEs to lease IT equipment, strengthening transparency and building a system of trust.”
Ant Group has always been “exploring technological innovation in privacy-preserving computation, including Multi-Party Computation and TEE.”
According to IPR Daily and incoPat, in 2022, Ant Group topped “the list of patent applications for privacy-preserving computation technologies, with 1,152 patent applications.”
In April 2023, Ant Group also partnered “with Tsinghua University’s Institute of Advanced Studies to launch the Joint Research Center for Privacy-Preserving Computation and Blockchain.”