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Synthetaic is a startup that works to create data, specifically images, that can be used to train artificial intelligence.
Founder and CEO Corey Jaskolski’s past experience includes working with National Geographic (where he was recently named Explorer of the Year) and a 3D media startup. In fact, he told me that his time with National Geographic made him aware of the need for more data sets in conservation.
Sound like a strange match? Well, Jaskolski said that he was working on a project that could automatically identify poachers and endangered animals from camera images, and one of the main obstacles was the fact that there simply aren’t enough existing images. from any of the poachers (who generally appreciate being photographed) or certain endangered animals in the wild to train the AI to detect them.
He added that other companies are trying to create synthetic AI training data through building 3D worlds (in other words, “building a replica of the world you want AI to learn from”), but in many cases, this approach is prohibitively expensive.
In contrast, the Synthetaic (pronounced “synthetic”) approach combines the work of artists and 3D modelers with technology based on confrontational generative networks, making it much more affordable and scalable, according to Jaskolski.
To illustrate the “interaction” between the two halves of Synthetaic’s model, he returned to the poacher identification example: the startup’s 3D team could create photorealistic models of an AK 47 (and other weapons), then use adversary networks to generate hundreds of thousands. of images or more showing that model with different backgrounds.
The startup also validates its results after an AI has been trained with Synthetaic’s synthesized images, testing that AI on real data.
For Synthetaic’s initial projects, Jaskolski said he wanted to partner with organizations doing work that makes the world a better place, including Save the Elephants (which is using technology to track animal populations) and the University of Michigan (which is developing an AI that can identify different types of brain tumors).
Jaskolski added that Synthetaic customers do not need any AI expertise of their own, because the company provides an “end-to-end” solution.
The startup announced today that it has raised $ 3.5 million in seed funds led by Lupa Systems, with the participation of Betaworks Ventures and TitletownTech (a partnership between Microsoft and Green Bay Packers). The startup, which has now raised a total of $ 4.5 million, is also part of Lupa and Betaworks’ Betalab program of startups doing work that could help “fix the Internet.”
Betaworks and Betalab present their first four startups working to ‘fix the Internet’
