01: The Future of AI
An interview with Matt Thomasson and Ashley Antonides of Anno.ai
An Introduction
Anno.Ai is a cutting edge startup based in the U.S. focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Anno’s core product is the Anno Engine, which enables customers to create and maintain ML applications with ease while also serving as the foundation for Anno’s other products. A platform like this allows customers to create complex models without needing to “look under the hood”, drastically lowering the barrier of entry to AI.
The Product
Anno Fusion (one of Anno’s flagship products) is a machine learning application and one of the products that is built on the Anno Engine. Fusion can analyze different types of data from a variety of sensors and use an AI model to produce usable information. For example, it could analyze live security camera or drone footage alongside other sensor streams and present it in a way that is useful for customers. Along with the Fusion, Anno has other applications, like Vision and Optimize, that also use AI and ML to analyze specific types of data and sensors.
With these products, Anno has drawn in some impressive customers from the defense, security, public safety, and commercial sectors across the United States, Europe, Africa, and Australia. By demonstrating successful analysis of incomplete data coming from a variety of sensors, the model offers immense value in use cases that are relevant to these customers. The ability to perform in cases like these, where huge amounts of data need to be processed and presented in real-time, has often been a problem for AI/ML models, which is why many startups in the field tend to leave government and defense out of their target audience.
A Seamless Solution
Just as Anno AI products are able to perform in imperfect situations, the team at Anno is as well. Along with creating the AI application, Anno assists its customers in building the hardware and software infrastructure necessary for the model to be effective. In an interview with Matt Thomasson (Director Hardware Engineering) and Ashley Antonides (Chief AI Officer), we spoke about this process and what it looks like when performed. Although Anno is limited in sharing information that relates to government projects, Matt spoke about his experience assisting a real estate development company that wanted to track vehicles passing through its properties. This project required ‘boots on the ground’, in the form of Anno engineers that went to the site and installed the hardware themselves. In this case, the hardware team used off-the-shelf sensors and integrated them into the Anno machine learning platform, with some devices requiring unique solutions. Since the properties were in remote areas, the hardware team deployed a solar installation in a remote area to give power to sensors that were outside of any nearby power grid’s range. This is another example of Anno taking the path less traveled (in the realm of AI/ML software companies) and sending out their own team to assist in developing the infrastructure necessary for their product to operate without fail for the customer.
Wrapping Up
As well as opening the door for more defense-related customers, creating a turn-key AI model allows Anno to have success with commercial customers, such as the company mentioned above. Most large scale commercial businesses would benefit from a sophisticated AI model built on a robust hardware network, but the idea of building something so technical at such a large scale seems too daunting of a task to be worth the effort. The Anno model aims at ease-of-use (despite being such a sophisticated tool) to allow for the benefits of AI to be free of the usual problems.
It is one thing to state that your product has a wealth of use cases, but another to prove it. Anno was able to show that its platform could operate at a high level and in almost any environment. And if the hardware can’t keep up, Anno assists its customers directly with their team of engineers experienced in solving these problems. With a business model that allows for both commercial and defense interests to fall under its umbrella, Anno will continue to separate itself from the many other companies that occupy the already saturated AI/ML space.