Posted by Generative AI
For years, we’ve seen TV show detectives in a lab getting a blurry picture from a crime scene and asking the technician to “enhance”, which then magically resolves to reveal the antagonist’s face. Anyone who has ever edited digital photos knows this was wild science fiction. But now, with AI and machine learning, we may be getting a lot closer to this capability.
Generative AI is a form of AI technology that can create new digital content (e.g. text, video, audio, images) without human intervention. Generative AI engines can conjure entirely new digital artifacts that appear to be human-made. A notorious example of this technology includes deepfake, a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake,” where a synthetically created video or image imitates the appearance and/or sound of a real person (often a public figure). Although deepfake has a lot of buzz right now due to its contentious nature, there are positive applications of deep learning technology and other forms of generative AI.
By 2025, 10% of all data produced and specifically, 30% of all outbound marketing messages from large corporations will be from generative AI. Generative AI has beneficial implications in so many different industries, such as in healthcare, robotics, and film, to name a few. As this technology continues to enter into mainstream business operations and innovations within various sectors, startups will remain at the forefront of these technological advancements. Let’s dive into 6 startups that are currently involved with generative AI.
6 Startups using Generative AI
Startups are continuing to take the lead in innovation, especially in AI technology. At Iterate.ai, we value startups and include their potential in our core beliefs because we know that large organizations can tap into the great work that startups have done in order to collaborate and discover game-changing solutions. We believe in the power of startups so much that we created a platform, Signals, that uses our proprietary AI to track over 15.8 million companies so that you can find a startup that fits your needs and meets your goals. Using what our Signals platform has tracked, let’s take a look at 6 startups that are directly involved with generative AI technology.
- Brighter AI
This Berlin-based startup values privacy in the world of technological advancements and digitalization. Brighter AI offers a leading anonymization solution for the automotive, healthcare, public sector, and research industries. Using their generative AI technology, they created a software that can either blur or anonymize (using deep learning) an image or video of a vehicle or human. A significant feature of their software is that once the image or video has been blurred or anonymized, it cannot be reverse-engineered, truly guaranteeing anonymity. In the field of healthcare, for example, videos of surgeons performing surgery is incredibly beneficial to medical students; equally important is protecting the privacy of the patient who is being performed on. This is where generative AI technology via Brighter AI comes in, using their software, everyone’s face in the video is able to be blurred or anonymized completely.
- Replikr Intelligent Avatars
Replikr is a New Zealand startup that uses generative AI to create intelligent avatars for customer service purposes. Their ai-powered avatars are representations of people using deep learning, created by existing employee professional headshots and voices, in order to assist customers virtually. Replikr is not only providing a product, but a promising experience for businesses’ customers. Replikr assures emotionally intelligent avatars that can hold meaningful conversations with customers through troubleshooting, answering questions, and booking reservations or appointments, to name a few examples. Replikr’s technology also centers a company’s brand, knowing that a logo can only go so far in providing a truly branded customer experience, they use their lifelike avatars to personify a brand and enhance customers’ experiences in real-time.
- Syntonym
Founded in London in 2019, Syntonym is another startup that specializes in synthetic anonymization using generative AI. Syntonym creates products directly for users, claiming to empower users to control when and how their identity will be revealed. In fact, their user-friendly technology needs minimal computation and can run on end-user devices like smartphones. Syntonym wants content creators and users to have the ability to share their stories without revealing their identity or jeopardizing the safety of others. In terms of safety measures, the startup keeps track of each synthetic face that is created with their technology in order to detect unauthorized use of their generative AI. The synthetic faces that are created are hyperrealistic and guarantee anonymization directly to users.
- GoCharlie.ai
This US-based startup promises to be your business’ new marketing assistant by leveraging generative AI to create engaging digital content. How their AI, Charlie, works is by having an employee or entrepreneur upload an image and/or insert keywords into the software and then suggestions for trending hashtags and captions are generated by the AI. You then can make any edits you’d like and the AI will analyze the content and let you know how it will perform compared to top competitors in your industry. You can then choose to publish the Charlie-generated content and the AI will even curate custom responses to any comments, positive or negative, on the content that was posted. GoCharlie’s customers have saved an average of 6 hours a week using their generative AI technology, creating more time for users to focus on other necessary business tasks. This startup also understands the necessity for training AI algorithms to be ethical, naming that they have trained Charlie to not generate any harmful content.
- Musico
Musico is a Dutch startup that uses generative AI to create brand new, copyright-free music. Musico has two products, their software engine that uses their algorithms and machine learning technology to generate a wide variety of music, and their mobile app, used for AI-assisted music production. Musico prides itself on having an AI-powered toolbox that can generate infinite melodies, beats, and harmonies. Also, they are exploring opportunities for cross-media developers by developing a new plugin that combines narration and music, perfect for video games, for example. Users, like music producers or recording artists, who are interested in Musico can also integrate Musico’s technology into their own software programs, in order to fit any creative needs.
- OpenAI
Founded in 2015, this US based startup’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. AGI is another way of naming autonomous technologies, which generative AI is a product of. OpenAI created DALL-E 2, their new generative AI system that can create realistic images and art using a description in natural language. DALL-E 2 can create original images and make realistic edits onto existing images, and uses a “diffusion” process to learn the relationship between images and the text used to describe them. Currently, OpenAI hasn’t launched DALL-E 2 into their API because they are continuing to train the AI to be ethical (e.g. to not generate harmful images) and are working with external experts to confirm their technology’s limitations and capabilities. OpenAI is committed to meeting their mission to provide technology that benefits everyone.
What’s next for Generative AI?
As we’ve learned, various industries are already using generative AI to innovate their products, processes, and technologies. Something to consider is how generative AI can be intentionally trained to be ethical, as we saw mentioned in some of the startups above. This takes intentional planning and implementation from the humans who design and train the specific AI algorithms. Technology being inherently neutral and harmless is simply untrue; biases, for example, can exist within AI, simply because we as humans are imperfect. This is why for technologies that crank out large amounts of content and data, like generative AI, it is important to consider how we can eliminate bias from being produced in algorithmic systems. Generative AI will continue to grow, develop, and enter everyday business operations, and we can reap the benefits of this technology while also ensuring that it adds integrity to the work that we do.