Federated inference

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a computer system, the program code causing the computer system to execute a method comprising:

• receiving a query data instance for which a prediction is requested;
• transmitting the query data instance to a plurality of computing nodes;
• receiving, from each computing node in the plurality of computing nodes, a per-node prediction for the query data instance, wherein the per-node prediction is generated by the computing node using a trained version of a local machine learning (ML) model of the computing node, and wherein the per-node prediction is encrypted in a manner that prevents the query server from learning the per-node prediction;
• aggregating the per-node predictions received from the plurality of computing nodes;
• generating a federated prediction based on the aggregated per-node predictions;
• and
• outputting the federated prediction as a final prediction result for the query data instance.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon program code that, when executed, causes the processor to:
• receive a query data instance for which a prediction is requested;
• transmit the query data instance to a plurality of computing nodes;
• receive, from each computing node in the plurality of computing nodes, a per-node prediction for the query data instance, wherein the per-node prediction is generated by the computing node using a trained version of a local machine learning (ML) model of the computing node, and wherein the per-node prediction is encrypted in a manner that prevents the query server from learning the per-node prediction;
• aggregate the per-node predictions received from the plurality of computing nodes;
• generate a federated prediction based on the aggregated per-node predictions;
• and
• output the federated prediction as a final prediction result for the query data instance.