It works in the sense that the operations are performed on binary numbers, so text handling works the same way it normally does assuming the handler function is encrypted to match. Once you have multiplication and addition, you can make logic gates and general computing follows from there - although with the noise being amplified thru each logic gate, the more complex the functions the more bootstrapping is required and the less I see this being doable in the short term.
For a working example, check out apple’s homomorphic encryption page, they use it for landmark identification and afaik will be using it for siri whenever they get to that update. It’s slow but it’s already usable - I’m not personally convinced it’ll be used everywhere, but the technology is super cool and I hope it shows up more
It works in the sense that the operations are performed on binary numbers, so text handling works the same way it normally does assuming the handler function is encrypted to match. Once you have multiplication and addition, you can make logic gates and general computing follows from there - although with the noise being amplified thru each logic gate, the more complex the functions the more bootstrapping is required and the less I see this being doable in the short term.
For a working example, check out apple’s homomorphic encryption page, they use it for landmark identification and afaik will be using it for siri whenever they get to that update. It’s slow but it’s already usable - I’m not personally convinced it’ll be used everywhere, but the technology is super cool and I hope it shows up more