There is already DRM for AI. check out nvidia’s docs around hosting proprietary models with encrypted weights

Interestingly it is Microsoft who filed a patent for DRM-style locking of AI models to verified devices (published July 2026): https://patentlyze.com/patent/microsoft-drm-ai-models-explai...

So they can avoid the embarrassment when Copilot migrates to Qwen 4

AI is actually the perfect use case for homomorphic encryption.

I wonder if this space is explored fully enough at the moment.

Aside from some implementation details, it's conceptually much easier than doing it for a SQL database.

That's older than current AI/LLM/NVIDIA wave. Many application specific DSPs probably carry their model weights in an encrypted manner. If not, we would have seen the extremely performant face recognition and tracking models extracted from professional cameras already.

It wouldn't work on windows either, if that were the case. It sounds more like it hasn't been properly implemented yet

I don't see the case for DRM protected local models on either side.

The consumer has access to free and open models for local use.

The supplier has better control and wider market to serve running the models in data centers.

Only way I can see encrypted models being widespread is if they are bundled as part of a software package (OS/Browser/etc) and not sold as the product.

There's good open weight models for now, labs could stop releasing them for whatever reason (assuming "good model" is a moving target).

There are plenty of both transformer and non-LLM "edge" models that aren't free and open - think anything that ships in consumer electronics. Vendors usually want this IP protected.

And, the same GPUs are run in datacenter, where there's a big insider risk that vendors want to mitigate with encrypted models (if you're Anthropic and you want AWS to host your models, you don't want 5000 or even 500 or even 50 AWS employees with access to your highly valuable/desirable model weights).

Or buy Huawei ascend...

Is DRM going to work considering how good LLMs are in reverse engineering? I would say it is a fools errand at this point.

This is exactly it, they have stated that they are planning to introduce licensing and subscriptions for server farms: https://www.pcguide.com/news/nvidia-reportedly-planning-annu...

It's not their first rodeo. Their cards already need to authenticate with the driver to be enable the card completely. When I last checked, Nouveau driver has received a key which only enabled the hardware, allowing enough features to see a desktop and install closed NVIDIA drivers, nothing more.

NVIDIA is holding to its pearls like a sloth holding to its branch, because their all business model and livelihood is dependent on that control. I still commend AMD's decision to allow full card enablement with any driver which talks the correct language.

Like locking features behind a pro card ex transcoding media (historically).

There will be ways for them to segment the market and make their money. Maybe not 100x stock in 5 years but money all the same.