Sentient Information Systems
Sentient is part of SMR-group
Sentient Information Systems B.V. is part of the Sentient Machine Research group (SMR-group). SMR-group has been developing Artificial Intelligence technologies and applications since 1990 and presently consists of four companies active in different AI application areas. The group counts 20+ AI specialists with backgrounds in AI, mathematics, informatics, software engineering and psychology and is located in the center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Responsible AI
Recent years have shown numerous AI breakthroughs and require us to be conscious of the benefits and risks of this technology. We believe that companies working in AI have a responsibility to help explain the technology and think about how potential adverse outcomes can be prevented. To safeguard this the SMR-group uses 6 responsible AI principles to guide us in the responsible direction.
Human-Centric
We design technology that works for people not against them
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We are always in close contact with the users of our products by means of structured surveys or interviews
to assess their wishes (e.g. police investigators that use DataDetective; researchers that use FaceReader).
We also contribute to societal relevant projects such as We Are Data, which helps participants become aware of the kind of data technology can gather from them.
Fair
Our algorithms are fair with minimal bias
It is important to us that our technology works well for all people, regardless of their background. People with a darker skin color are underrepresented in many image-datasets, which often leads to lower classification performance. We try to mitigate this by balancing the composition of our training data and continuously testing our software against benchmark datasets (e.g. Gender Shades). This way we strive to have the same high level of accuracy for different groups of people.
Privacy Friendly
Privacy protection is embedded in the design of our technology
We incorporate a Privacy by Design approach in our products and we always respect participants’ privacy in the datasets we use. For example, in our research tool FaceReader Online, our clients sign a processing agreement and the participants are also required to give informed consent before participating. Additionally, we have the option not to store video recordings, but only anonymous metadata.
Transparent
Our algorithms and motives are overtly explainable
Our algorithms are not a black box and we have tools and documentation in place to explain our results to our users. For example, many steps in DataDetective are logged and relevant
clusters in the data can be inspected and clarified by similar cases. In addition, as an R&D company, we frequently publish about our new technology, providing transparency into the functioning of our algorithms.
Secure
We safeguard all data entrusted with us
We have security protocols in place to ensure our stakeholders’ data is safe with us. For example, all communications with our database servers (e.g. DataDetective, FaceReader Online) happen through an encrypted connection.
Competent
We design technology according to up-to-date standards
Our technology does well in quality assessment tests (e.g. Stockli et al, 2017). We spend a lot of effort in updating our algorithms and label new developments that are not completely validated yet as experimental.
The Other Companies
Vicarious Perception Technologies
VicarVision develops state of the art computer vision solutions for and specializes in perceiving people from video. In 2007, VicarVision introduced FaceReader, the first commercially available computer vision system able to evaluate the emotional expressions of the human face in real time. Visit the website >>
Page Rating Bot Services
Parabots provides services in text mining, information extraction, web search and web monitoring. Among its customers are government agencies with concerns in fiscal and security implications from web activities. Flaghip product Xbots illustrates the far reaching possibilities of web collection technology. Visit the website >>
Human Perception Cloud Solutions
Human Insight Services provides cloud services for human emotion and behavior analysis. It's first service FaceReader Online is now available. FaceReader Online allows companies and scientists to effectively perform online marketing or scientific research. Visit the website >>