Hi reader,

Is AI going to become like the Terminator? Or is it more like… the Baconator?

That’s how we kicked off the latest episode of AI Confidential, where I sat down with Will Grannis, VP and Chief Technology Officer at Google Cloud. Will shared a fascinating story about how one of Google’s earliest generative AI deployments—a drive-thru project at Wendy’s—became the blueprint for transformative AI solutions across industries.

By developing a system to interpret fast-food orders with unprecedented accuracy, Google Cloud unlocked an architecture that’s now powering call centers, enterprise workflows, and beyond. The takeaway? AI innovation often emerges from unexpected places—and can scale in ways we never anticipated.

In this episode, Will also dives into the importance of trust, control, and grounding AI in enterprise truth, revealing what really helps AI products move from pilot to production. It’s an insightful conversation filled with surprising use cases and practical advice for businesses navigating today’s AI landscape.

Curious how Frosties and fries helped lay the foundation for cutting-edge AI? Tune in to the episode to find out—and don’t forget to subscribe to AI Confidential wherever you get your podcasts.

Warm regards,
Aaron Fulkerson
CEO, Opaque Systems
Host, AI Confidential Podcast

Listen or watch the full episode on all major streaming platforms and be sure to subscribe to stay in the know when future episodes drop. Let us know what topics you’d like us to explore next!

2024 in Review: Building the Future of Confidential AI

As 2024 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a year of groundbreaking achievements that pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with Confidential AI. From pioneering new capabilities to forging transformative partnerships, Opaque Systems has made tremendous strides in empowering organizations to innovate with privacy and sovereignty. Here are some of the milestones that shaped our year:

Launching the First Confidential AI Platform for Encrypted Data

This year, we unveiled the Opaque Confidential AI Platform, the first and only solution for running AI and analytics workloads on encrypted data. By eliminating the trade-offs between privacy and performance, the platform enables organizations to fully utilize sensitive data without compromise. 

The Second Confidential Computing Summit

We hosted the Confidential Computing Summit, bringing together leaders across technology and industry to explore the transformative potential of Confidential Computing. This event marked an inflection point in the adoption of privacy-preserving technologies, as organizations embraced the power of secure AI to unlock new opportunities.

Delivering Real-World Impact

Throughout the year, Opaque partnered with global leaders like ServiceNow and Accenture to address pressing data challenges. From privacy-preserving fraud detection to secure retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) implementations, our solutions enabled organizations to unlock the value of their most sensitive data while maintaining control.

Breaking Through at Microsoft Ignite

At Microsoft Ignite, Opaque showcased the future of Confidential AI in collaboration with Microsoft Azure and NVIDIA. Our Confidential AI Platform, powered by Azure Confidential VMs and NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs, demonstrated how businesses can scale AI workloads on encrypted data while maintaining privacy and sovereignty. The live demos highlighted the platform’s ability to accelerate AI production and deliver groundbreaking results across industries like financial services and high tech.

Connecting Through AI Confidential

We launched the AI Confidential Podcast, a space for exploring the cutting edge of AI and data privacy. Featuring conversations with luminaries like Teresa Tung (Accenture), Mark Russinovich (Azure), and Daniel Rohrer (NVIDIA), the podcast has quickly become a vital resource for tech leaders navigating the intersection of AI innovation and data governance.

Looking Ahead

As we reflect on these milestones, we’re already setting the stage for what’s next. 2024 was a pivotal year, but it’s just the beginning. With exciting announcements on the horizon and a continued focus on advancing Confidential AI, we’re ready to make an even bigger impact in 2025.

In the Lab

The Latest Happenings at Opaque Systems

Recap: Opaque’s Office Warming Party on Dec. 10th
Opaque hosted an exclusive event at our new office, bringing together leaders shaping the future of AI innovation. Highlights included a moderated session with Prof. Raluca Ada Popa, Co-Founder and President of Opaque, followed by a Q&A discussion on key topics influencing AI and data policy. Attendees connected with other senior executives, academics, and innovators driving advancements in AI, alongside the Opaque team.

Opaque's AI Confidential Webinar Rescheduled for Dec. 19th: Empowering a New Era of Data Privacy and Responsible AI
Thank you to those who joined our webinar last week and we apologize for our last-minute cancellation. Due to the 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Northern California shortly before the webinar, a Tsunami warning was issued for the San Francisco Bay area—out of caution for our presenters and the guidance of the National Tsunami Warning Center, we decided to postpone and reschedule the webinar for December 19th at 10 a.m. PT.

Responsible AI is more than just a best practice—it’s a critical foundation for AI applications. From safeguarding data privacy and sovereignty to reducing bias and enhancing transparency, responsible AI frameworks empower businesses to drive innovation while building trust. Stay tuned for our webinar, hosted by Rishabh Poddar, Co-Founder & CTO of Opaque, and Giorgio Natili, VP and Head of Engineering. Want to learn how to foster innovation, without compromising sensitive data privacy? Register today!

Postcard from Rome: Building the Digital Core for AI
Rome’s timeless beauty provided the perfect backdrop for last week’s incredible event and celebration of Accenture’s Cloud Innovation Center anniversary. Accenture’s "Digital Core for AI" framework took center stage, showcasing how organizations can adopt scalable AI while maintaining full control over their data and models. Seeing Opaque as a core partner in this ecosystem, alongside tech leaders like Intel, Dell, Cloudera, and Equinix, reinforced our mission to empower enterprises with sovereign AI solutions (we call it confidential, they call it sovereign—the benefits are universal).

Community Corner

Insights from AI Confidential Readers

AI Expert Sanchit Shangari on How Opaque is Redefining Data Privacy Challenges 
GenAI is transforming industries, offering unprecedented capabilities. But as AI-powered tools become more sophisticated, they are increasingly exploited to compromise personal and organizational data, outpacing traditional privacy safeguards. The solution? Opaque's confidential AI platform provides comprehensive protection against emerging GenAI challenges while enabling safe AI innovation. Read Sanchit’s full post.

Community Corner is a space for you to share the posts, articles, podcasts, or videos that have sparked your curiosity or shifted your perspective on AI and innovation. Tell us what you’re reading, share a conversation you’re following, or send us your favorite videos and podcasts. 

Click below to submit your recommendation, and we’ll feature select contributions in future issues of the newsletter.

Code for Thought

Worthwhile Reads

⚠️ Progress will slow without solutions to AI bottlenecks. Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared that AI advancements are likely to slow down as the industry struggles to feed models new high-quality data and opportunities for easily scalable improvements become more scarce. He emphasized the need for technical breakthroughs, particularly in reasoning and executing actions reliably, to drive the next phase of AI development. Confidential AI can address these challenges by enabling secure, collaborative access to high-quality, siloed datasets—overcoming bottlenecks in data availability and enhancing AI models' reasoning capabilities. 

📊 The demand for high-quality data has never been more critical. According to Appen’s State of AI report, while 2024 is expected to close out with a 17% increase in GenAI use, data quality is projected to decline. This contrast highlights a growing issue in the AI landscape: as businesses innovate, the quality of the data they rely on may be deteriorating. Achieving AI success requires more than just large datasets—it requires data that is diverse, accurate, and trustworthy. With the help of confidential AI, businesses can overcome barriers and drive projects into production.

☁️ The AI gap in the cloud computing world has narrowed. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is rapidly integrating GenAI into its platform and services, narrowing the competitive gap with Microsoft and Google in the cloud computing space. Given the growing and  transformative value of GenAI, confidential computing is poised to become  a critical component of the AI ecosystem,  enabling secure collaboration on sensitive datasets, addressing privacy concerns, and creating a trusted foundation for deploying AI models in real-world business applications.

🏛 Federal AI strategy potentially shifting. As many of the directives will already be in motion when he takes office, President-elect Trump may reshape rather than repeal Biden's AI executive order, focusing on areas like reporting requirements and procurement standards while leveraging previous Trump-era AI initiatives. As government priorities around data sovereignty, technical standards, and ethical deployment evolve, confidential AI platforms like Opaque can  ensure businesses adapt to changes while maintaining confidence in their AI practices.