Sentient Technologies: AI via Barbados and Hong Kong
December 14, 2014
I noted a blog post in the Wall Street Journal called “Artificial Intelligence Company Sentient Emerges from Stealth.” The company then had an enthusiastic PR person named Peter Lo contact me. I asked for a list of the company’s patents. These are public documents and the law librarian and paralegal who work with me on my research for Cyber OSINT are ever at the ready to provide a list of patent information to me.
Not Sentient, the “just emerging from stealth company.” Here’s what I received in response to a polite, legitimate request for patent numbers:
Hi Stephen,
We’re checking on the patent numbers to see if we can share these publicly and will disclose if we can do so.
Best,
Peter [on behalf of Sentient Technologies, Zenogroup]
I pointed out that patents were in the US as far as I knew information available at USPTO, via Google, and free services that seem to be as plentiful as Microsoft Surface ads on televised basketball games.
Mr. Lo from Zenogroup replied:
Hey Stephen,
Completely understood that patents are public. We’re checking if we can give the exact numbers to share those details specifically. While these patents can be found publicly, the company overall has been careful about revealing the precise patents so as not to tip off other competitors.
Will let you know what we have!
Best,
Peter
Well, Peter replied a couple of days later with this information:
About two days later I received this information from Mr. Lo, who at this point, had become a center of interest for my research team:
Hi Stephen,
I certainly didn’t mean to come off as trying to withhold any information. I’m sorry if I gave that impression. Here’s the patents numbers for the Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) patents that we’ve been granted thus far. You’re also welcome to Google other patents by Babak Hodjat, Sentient Founder and Chief Scientist, to see where we’re building our expertise. Please feel free to also Google the patents by our other founders for more of the team’s collective background.
· 8825560 – Distributed evolutionary algorithm for asset management and trading
· 8527433 – Distributed evolutionary algorithm for asset management and trading
· 8768811 – Class-based distributed evolutionary algorithm for asset management and trading
Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions, and I’m sorry regarding the impression I gave you earlier. Happy to help if you need anything else.
Best,
Peter
So, case closed, right? No.
I asked one of the ArnoldIT goslings to check the the company a bit more closely, particularly the claim made about patents in the PR spam email I received on December 9, 2014:
Sentient now has 15 U.S. patents – 6 issued and 9 pending.
My researcher pointed out that the email from Mr. Lo contained references to three patent documents. The clever ArnoldIT professional told me that we should have received 12 patent application and patent numbers.
Math is a strong suit of this particular researcher.
In poking around, we found that the folks involved with Sentient have or had some connection with Sentient Technologies Holdings Ltd, which in turn, is hooked with Genetic Finance (Barbados) Limited. A fair number of the inventions are related to finance; for example:
Distributed evolutionary algorithm for asset management and trading United States Patent 8825560 B2 · Filed: 05/15/2013 · Published: 09/02/2014
Abstract: The cost of performing sophisticated software-based financial trend and pattern analysis is significantly reduced by distributing the processing power required to carry out the analysis and computational task across a large number of networked individual or cluster of computing nodes. To achieve this, the computational task is divided into a number of sub tasks. Each sub task is then executed on one of a number of processing devices to generate a multitude of solutions. The solutions are subsequently combined to generate a result for the computational task. The individuals controlling the processing devices are compensated for use of their associated processing devices. The algorithms are optionally enabled to evolve over time. Thereafter, one or more of the evolved algorithms is selected in accordance with a predefined condition.
Assignee:
Genetic Finance (Barbados) Limited (Belleville, BB)
Inventors:
Hodjat, Babak (Dublin, CA, US)
Shahrzad, Hormoz (Dublin, CA, US)
Blondeau, Antoine (Hong Kong, CN)
Cheyer, Adam (Oakland, CA, US)
Harrigan, Peter (San Francisco, CA, US)
Others relate to executing algorithms via a network; for example:
DISTRIBUTED NETWORK FOR PERFORMING COMPLEX ALGORITHMS United States Patent Application 20140006316 A1 · Filed: 08/29/2013 · Published: 01/02/2014
Abstract: A server computer and a multitude of client computers form a network computing system that is scalable and adapted to continue to evaluate the performance characteristics of a number of genes generated using a software application running on the client computers. Each client computer continues to periodically receive data associated with the genes stored in its memory. Using this data, the client computers evaluate the performance characteristic of their genes by comparing a solution provided by the gene with the periodically received data associated with that gene. Accordingly, the performance characteristic of each gene may be updated and varied with each periodically received data. The performance characteristic of a gene defines its fitness. The genes may be virtual asset traders that recommend trading options, and the data associated with the genes may be historical trading data.
Assignee:
GENETIC FINANCE (BARBADOS) LIMITED (Belleville, BB)
Inventors:
Hodjat, Babak (Dublin, CA, US)
Shahrzad, Hormoz (Dublin, CA, US)
Blondeau, Antoine (Hong Kong, CN)
Cheyer, Adam (Oakland, CA, US)
Harrigan, Peter (San Francisco, CA, US)
The company has a Web site, it seems, for its financial applications. It looks like this:
The company also has an artificial intelligence centric Web site. It looks like this:
The company, according to Crunchbase here, has raised more than $140 million. Founded in 2007, Crunchbase describes the company this way:
Using advanced Artificial Intelligence technology, massively distributed computing, and a scientific approach to the verification of newly discovered strategies, Genetic Finance delivers novel solutions to complex problems in a wide variety of fields.
Sentient is described this way in an IDC article (without the ministrations of Dave Schubmehl it seems):
Sentient works on scaling artificial intelligence to help companies solve problems: “We take machine learning AI and algorithms – and scale them dramatically so by that we tailor and distribute them around thousands of sites and millions of processors.” Sentient has been around for about six years and has managed to raise a total of $143 million in funding. The founding team actually worked on the technology that became Siri, Apple’s famous voice-controlled virtual assistant. I ask Blondeau if his work on Siri influenced what Sentient are working on now.
Fresh from the research for my forthcoming monograph CyberOSINT, several thoughts wafted through my mind as my researchers bored me with this information:
First, it seems that the “play” for sentient is to repurpose “smart” trading methods for more general purpose applications; hence, the stealth and the second Web site.
Second, the company does not equip Zenogroup to email a person receiving PR spam a list of public documents. Instead the company operates as if it were one of the firms providing specialized services to the law enforcement and intelligence communities. I did a quick check on the vendors known to me to be involved in law enforcement and intelligence, and Sentient rated a hit on the WSJ blog I mentioned but nothing else. Perhaps my files are incomplete? My thought is that pretending to be secret and being secret are two different things. Maybe not?
Third, the Barbados connection fascinates me. Years ago I encountered a financial professional working on a business matter with me. In our conversations, he identified what he called flashing yellow lights. Among those were senior managers who operated away from the primary place of business. Another was having legal incorporation at some interesting places.
Net net: Once again PR backfires for companies trying to cash in with their artificial intelligence technology. I think this company will be interesting to monitor. At the February 2015 CyberOSINT Conference in Washington, DC, I will ask around about Sentient’s technology.
There is a great deal of talk about artificial intelligence. However, human intelligence may be needed when trying to whip up buzz. I suppose the approach works in Barbados, but it does not work in rural Kentucky.
We have added this company to our forthcoming and very public Overflight for CyberOSINT. News about this free service will be available in early 2015 and no PR professional will flog you with stealth baloney.
Stephen E Arnold, December 14, 2014
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