It’s a big year for artificial intelligence, telecom advances, and tools designed to make these emerging technologies safe and transparent, judging from the finalists in the category of Innovation of the Year.
Continue reading for details on each finalist. Vote here or below in this GeekWire Awards category, which is presented by title sponsor Astound Business Solutions, and join us May 9 to see who wins.
Allen Institute for AI is a finalist for its Open Language Model, or OLMo. The Seattle-based institute released the open-source large language model in February along with the underlying data and code, meant to significantly improve understanding of how generative AI actually works. The idea is to enable scientific assessments of AI models, increasing transparency while simultaneously improving energy efficiency by eliminating redundancies.
Hiya‘s caller ID, call blocking, and spam protection technologies have become increasingly important in a world where generative AI and robocalls are increasing the risk of fraud. Hiya Protect, with its Adaptive AI spam protection, has been used in the US for more than five years, and globally by Samsung Galaxy devices and in the Hiya mobile app. In 2023, carriers around the world adopted Hiya Protect in a major global expansion of the technology.
Teal Communications has seen significant revenue growth for its eSIM technology that can connect devices to any data network around the world, with a focus on robotics, drones, fleet technology, agriculture, smart city technology, and EV charging stations. Unlike traditional SIM cards, eSIM modules are embedded into devices, programmable, and able to switch between networks. The company, founded in 2018 by Robby Hamblet and Michael Johnston, Jr., has raised more than $20 million in funding to date.
Protect AI specializes in securing AI and machine learning systems. The Seattle startup’s tools analyze AI systems to help software developers identify and address security threats, and build secure AI systems by design. One of its specialties is tracking the entire AI/ML supply chain from training data to ongoing use of the model. Founded by veterans of DataScience.com, Oracle, and Amazon Web Services, the company raised $35 million in July 2023.
Read AI analyzes and summarizes meetings, emails, and messages using artificial intelligence, providing an automated project manager and executive assistant. The startup’s technology discerns key questions, participant engagement, action items, and other details from work communications. After starting with AI meeting analysis, Read AI recently expanded to offer AI-generated recaps of email conversations and messaging threads. Read AI has seen significant user growth, and just announced $21 million in new funding from Goodwater and Madrona.
WhyLabs, the AI observability company, launched its LangKit toolkit to monitor and manage large language models in real-time, addressing the inherent challenges of LLMs including biases, security vulnerabilities, and the potential for negative customer experiences. LangKit offers features for visualizing data, monitoring performance, and receiving alerts on critical issues or changes in quality. With the LangKit launch, WhyLabs has established partnerships with major tech providers such as AWS, Azure, and HPE, assisting with responsible AI practices.
Last year’s Innovation of the Year winner was Ghostwriter AI, developed by entrepreneur Patrick Husting.
The GeekWire Awards recognize the top innovators and companies in Pacific Northwest technology. Finalists in this category and others were selected based on community nominations, along with input from GeekWire Awards judges. Community voting across all categories will continue until April 12, combined with feedback from judges to determine the winner in each category.
We’ll announce the winners live on stage at Showbox SoDo in Seattle on May 9. There are a limited number of table sponsorships available to attend the event. Learn more and sign up to attend on the GeekWire Awards event site.
If interested in sponsoring a category or purchasing a table sponsorship for the event, contact us at events@geekwire.com.
Special thanks to Astound Business Solutions, the presenting sponsor of the 2024 GeekWire Awards.
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