NXP Semiconductors has added a new tool, eI Model Watermarking, to its eIQ Toolkit for machine learning development. eIQ Model Watermarking is the industry’s first effective tool to help developers protect their machine learning investments. The tool embeds a watermark in a machine learning model, adding copyright ownership to the model and allowing developers to prove that a machine learning model is a copy or clone of their model IP without requiring access to that model’s code.

It’s been said that data is the new gold, and nowhere is that more true than in machine learning, where a model’s quality heavily depends on the quality of the data it is trained with, and domain expertise is critical in creating highly efficient models. Though they are a valuable and differentiating asset to a company, machine learning models typically lack the copyright protection that protects ordinary software from unauthorized copying or cloning. eIQ Model Watermarking allows developers to copyright their machine learning models, while also enabling developers to detect unauthorized use and protect their unique IP.