Aeteos SAS – Empowering a future of ‘Tech for Good’ with Ethical and Secure Cognitive Computing

“Our objective is to provide our clients with technology that helps people, is ethical, eco-friendly, highly secure, accurate, trustworthy, transparent, and explainable, respecting people’s fundamental rights. In short, we aim to provide Tech for Good.”

In today's organizational landscape, tasks requiring human intelligence heavily depend on human intervention. However, the future envisions a collaborative approach where both individuals and automated systems share the execution of these tasks. This shift necessitates the development of advanced AI solutions capable of replicating the intricacies of human cognition and handling tasks traditionally within the realm of human intelligence.

Aeteos SAS is at the forefront of this transformative vision. At Aeteos, Cognitive Computing is the core focus, drawing extensively from the fields of psychology, philosophy, neurosciences, linguistics, and computer sciences.

Mark Pohlmann, CEO of Aeteos SAS, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review about how his company is helping people by leveraging groundbreaking Cognitive Computing software solutions.

The Inception: How it all started

“Back in 2016 and even today, most AI software is heavily based on mathematics and statistics, which for us represents the wrong approach. Intelligence is a ‘human thing’ and can best be defined by one’s capacity to represent knowledge, understand it, and be able to reason, make decisions, and solve problems. Making machines smarter will require that these human capabilities can be transferred to and executed by a machine. To make this possible, we have based our approach on psychology, neurosciences, linguistics, philosophy, and computer sciences to create two core software components: the SmartNeurons™ and the VirtualBrains™. SmartNeurons™ can process information like it is processed in our brain by our chemical neurons, in an analog way or fuzzy way so that this processing is as close as possible to how humans process information. VirtualBrains™ is a data structure analogous to the human long-term memory, where information or knowledge is stored in a categorized way, providing machines with specific frames of references and enabling cognition. These components are at the heart of our award-winning Cognitive Computing software engine, Percipion™,” said Mark Pohlmann.

Percipion™: Aeteos SAS's Brainchild

Aeteos SAS’s seven years of extensive research in neurosciences, cognitive and clinical psychology, linguistics, philosophy, ergonomics, and computer sciences culminated in the creation of Percipion™.

“Today, in many organizations, most processes requiring human intelligence are executed by people and cannot be easily modernized using traditional technologies. For many of those processes, people need to work within a given business context, understand and assess enterprise data provided in natural language, find relevant information and new insights, reason, decide what to do, and then take action. Our vision is that people and machines can execute these same processes. Percipion™ is a new generation of Cognitive Computing software able to replicate how the brain works and perform tasks usually requiring human intelligence. It empowers businesses to represent multiple semantic contexts, understand natural language, reason, and take action and can be used across the enterprise to modernize up to 38 use cases.”

Disrupting the Cognitive Computing Paradigm

“What we do is disruptive, and most of the time, we go against the wind. While people believe machine learning is the way to go, we hold the view that learning is a process machines cannot undertake on their own to acquire knowledge effectively. Learning is a standard mental activity and doesn't equate to intelligence. Our focus is on making machines smarter. Machines should also learn how to forget because, as humans, the ability to forget is a fundamental mental activity. Just because mathematics and statistics currently dominate the AI world, it's not a valid reason to believe these sciences alone can create artificial intelligence. We have chosen a different path, primarily rooted in psychology and neurosciences because, for us, it is the only way to infuse a warm heart into a cold machine,” emphasizes Mark Pohlmann.

Client Testimonials

A multinational insurance company based in France has incorporated Percipion™ to enhance workforce management and decrease talent attrition. Quarterly employee surveys, conducted to pinpoint areas of improvement, were challenging for human resources due to the surveys' natural language format. Understanding the feedback and measuring employee satisfaction objectively proved time-consuming. Now, with Percipion™, employee surveys are swiftly assessed. It identifies satisfaction criteria, generates a comprehensive report for HR within minutes, highlighting strengths and areas needing attention. This enables real-time identification of improvement areas, providing valuable insights into the workforce.

A leading French national reporting platform, with more than two decades of expertise in combating illegal online content, equips Internet users with diverse reporting tools. They address content related to child sexual exploitation, terrorism, harassment, hate speech, psychosocial risks, and explicit material accessible to minors. The platform collaborates with law enforcement, web hosts, and digital platforms to eliminate such content. To enhance user protection, the moderation team utilizes Percipion’s™ content moderation capabilities. These tools expedite the processing of incoming reports by tagging inappropriate content before moderators review it. This approach ensures swift identification and removal of illegal content, bolstering online safety.

“We are very happy to have provided the industry with a solution to assess a conversation on social networks or chat platforms in real-time in order to proactively detect the psychological tactics used by child groomers and alert the victim while preserving e-evidence for law enforcement authorities,” said Mr. Pohlmann. He further added, "We did the same for cyber-bullying. Protecting our children is crucial and adapting Percipion’s™ natural language understanding capacities to those weak specific semantic signals related to cybercrimes was a key thing to do.”

Aeteos SAS’s Expert Team

When asked about the company's team and their contribution to the company's value, Mark Pohlmann stated, “Aeteos™ is now a family business for two main reasons. First, it is very difficult to find cognitive psychologists or neuroscientists who also write computer code. Second, Percipion™ is a proprietary software engine that does not use any third-party libraries or components. It is solely based on our research and development work. Our team has created the foundation of Percipion™, and keeping this core team united is key to protecting our intellectual property.”

Road Ahead

“What is key for us is to provide our clients with technology that helps people, is ethical, eco-friendly, highly secure, accurate, trustworthy, transparent, and explainable, respecting people’s fundamental rights. In short, we aim to provide Tech for Good.”

“Today, we continue to work on numerous innovations and new functions, enabling our customers to modernize even more challenging business use cases using Percipion™,” concludes Mark Pohlmann.

Aeteos SAS | Leadership

Mark Pohlmann is a co-founder and the CEO of Aeteos SAS.

Béatrice is a co-founder and the Head of R&D of Aeteos SAS.

Established in 2016 by these two accomplished cognitive psychologists—formerly associated with prestigious institutions like the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Computer Science Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence (LAFORIA) in Paris—Aeteos™ stands as a testament to their expertise. With a collective experience spanning over 20 years, their executives have successfully managed 200+ projects for Fortune 500 companies in EMEA while working at renowned consulting and technology firms, including Andersen Consulting, Accenture, Cap Gemini, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

“Percipion™ empowers businesses to represent multiple semantic contexts, understand natural language, reason, and take action and can be used across the enterprise to modernize up to 38 use cases.”