Introducing the finalists of the Cyber Startup Challenge 2024
In the selection process for the Cyber Startup Challenge 2024, three start-ups – Patronus AI, QuantPi and Dynamo AI – were able to convince the jury. They will present their innovative solutions for ‹Security of Artificial Intelligence› in a pitch at the Cyber-Defence Campus Conference on 30 October 2024. This conference is organised annually by the Cyber Defence Campus of armasuisse Science and Technology.
On the topic of ‹Security of Artificial Intelligence›, startups presented their innovative solutions for securing artificial intelligence (AI) applications and minimising potential risks. The winner will be awarded a proof-of-concept contract and the opportunity to demonstrate their solution in a real-world DDPS environment.
The Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus plays a key role in monitoring cyber developments and responding proactively. In view of the increasing cyber risks, it is important to identify and support innovative technologies at an early stage. Start-ups have the potential to develop groundbreaking ideas that offer significant technological advantages for cyber security, even if these solutions are not yet fully developed.
The Cyber Startup Challenge is specifically looking for such innovations in order to develop solutions for the Swiss Armed Forces and other security stakeholders together with startups. This year's focus is on the security of artificial intelligence, and startups from around the world are presenting their visionary technologies in this area. The jury ultimately selected the following three finalists from the large number of participating companies:
QuantPi
QuantPi is a pioneer in the field of trustworthy technologies for the development of responsible AI. Its end-to-end platform comprehensively tests AI systems for bias, robustness, explainability, compliance and other critical metrics. This provides those involved in the AI lifecycle with a shared understanding of their AI models, regardless of whether they were built in-house or obtained from third parties. At the heart of this platform is a powerful proprietary testing engine that uniformly evaluates all types of AI (LLMs (Large Language Models), computer vision, machine learning, etc.). This provides actionable insights and operationalises internal AI guidelines and regulatory frameworks such as the European AI Act.
QuantPi has emerged from one of the world's leading institutes for information security (CISPA). It is shaping a future in which intelligent machines are used in a trustworthy and responsible manner. QuantPi is trusted by some of the world's largest companies and institutions and remains a global leader in promoting trustworthy AI.
Patronus AI
Patronus AI is an automated LLM evaluation, protection, and safety company. Its platform enables businesses and governments to evaluate and compare LLMs' performance in real-world scenarios, generate test cases at scale, monitor hallucinations, and prevent other unexpected and unsafe behaviours.
Patronus AI benefits users by saving thousands of hours of human evaluation, accelerating the development and confidence in GenAI applications from prototype to production, and minimising the negative risks of hallucinations and prompt injections.
Dynamo AI
Dynamo AI was founded by a team of PhD-level scientists from MIT and security experts and offers a comprehensive approach to AI security and risk management. Dynamo AI is a leader in compliance-compliant GenAI, enabling governments to deploy secure and protected applications at scale.
Dynamo AI offers three products: DynamoEval evaluates GenAI models for security, hallucination, privacy and compliance risks. DynamoEnhance helps to remediate identified GenAI risks and vulnerabilities to ensure safer and more reliable operations. DynamoGuard provides real-time guardrailing for GenAI that is customisable in natural language and can run in the cloud, hybrid, on-premises or fully on edge devices to ensure comprehensive data protection and security for AI. The ability to run AI guardrailing entirely on edge devices, with or without an internet connection, provides defence customers with mission-critical guardrailing.
On Wednesday, 30 October 2024, the winner of this year's Cyber Startup Challenge was announced.