Insider Brief
- Rasa, a conversational AI leader, has raised $1 million in funding to expand its platform, which allows businesses to customize their AI assistants in line with recent AI regulations, emphasizing data security and client control over their data.
- The company’s CALM feature simplifies AI assistant development, providing transparency and auditability in conversational flows, and their Conversational Driven Development (CDD) approach enables AI to adapt based on user interactions.
- Rasa’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is central to its operations, fostering AI solutions that are adaptable, unbiased, and inclusive, aligning with ethical AI principles and catering to a diverse global audience.
PRESS RELEASE — SAN FRANCISCO/November 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Rasa, a leader in the conversational AI industry, today underscores its long-standing commitment to empowering businesses with the ability to tailor their AI assistants. This empowerment aligns perfectly with the recent AI regulations, emphasizing Rasa’s foresight and adaptability in an industry where flexibility and compliance are paramount.
Empowering Customization and Security
“Rasa takes a fundamentally different approach to security, one that empowers clients to be the ultimate gatekeepers of their data,” says Melissa Gordon, CEO of Rasa. “By designing a platform where clients establish their own firewalls and safety measures, we ensure that we have no access to our clients’ data, providing an additional layer of security and privacy.”
Clients have the freedom to define their own certification qualifications. This approach not only meets the current demands of AI regulations but also offers businesses the flexibility to adapt to evolving compliance requirements, ensuring their AI solutions remain both effective and compliant. Rasa’s transparency gives clients full visibility and control over their data sharing preferences, a critical step when interfacing with government entities.
“This client-centric model not only enhances protection, especially for PII, but also streamlines the implementation process, as the usual data auditing is no longer a bottleneck,” Gordon continues. “It’s a framework that respects client autonomy and greatly reduces the potential for data breaches, which is critical in our commitment to leading the industry toward a more secure future.”
CALM: Simplifying AI While Ensuring Transparency
Rasa’s technological heart beats with the newly introduced CALM — Conversational AI with Language Models — a feature that embodies simplicity and transparency. “With CALM, we’re eliminating the complexities typically associated with developing AI assistants,” says Alan Nichol, Co-Founder and CTO of Rasa.
“Our clients can easily see and inspect exact reasoning steps at every point in a conversation, giving them auditability and transparency,” Nichol explains. “They appreciate the straightforward conversational flows that CALM enables. This technology also eliminates the industry problem of disinformation as it prevents AI hallucinations, or making up information.”
But CALM is just one part of Rasa’s comprehensive approach to building AI that aligns with human values. Rasa introduced Conversational Driven Development (CDD) a few years ago to help people build more user-friendly AI assistants. CDD enables the AI to listen, learn, and iterate, using user insights to constantly enhance interactions.
A Foundation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Rasa’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plays a large role in this process. The varied perspectives within Rasa’s team contribute to a broader understanding of global compliance and security needs, making the platform robust and adaptable to diverse regulatory environments.
“At Rasa, diversity is not an afterthought — it’s our bedrock. The many voices and perspectives within our team fuels our drive to create AI solutions that serve everyone,” says Lisa Hufnell, Head of Talent Acquisition at Rasa. “By entwining DEI in its operations and products, Rasa crafts AI that is not only technologically advanced but also respectful of the many users it serves, reflecting a diverse global audience.”
This dedication goes beyond internal policies. It is reflected in every line of code and every interaction their AI models facilitate. As the conversation around biases in AI grows louder, Rasa has been at the forefront, embedding checks and balances into their development cycle. The engineering teams use their various backgrounds to build products with an inherent understanding of accessibility, inclusivity, and unbiased performance.
Commitment to Ethical AI
As AI becomes an integral part of our daily lives, questions of ethics and accountability come to the forefront. Rasa’s response has been clear and consistent: to build AI that upholds the highest standards of ethical responsibility.
This has never been more relevant than now, as enterprises grapple with the implications of the recent Biden Administration “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” Rasa holds true to the executive order’s statement that “AI reflects the principles of the people who build it, the people who use it, and the data upon which it is built.”
Rasa’s adherence to DEI is a testament to its forward-thinking outlook. It is a strategic advantage that allows the company to navigate the complexities of the market and regulatory environment with confidence and credibility.
Looking Forward
The road ahead for Rasa is paved with continuous innovation. As the company expands its capabilities and embraces new technologies, its core values of diversity, security, and transparency remain steadfast. Rasa invites industry partners, developers, and clients to join in shaping the future of conversational AI — a future that is equitable, secure, and inclusive for all.
About Rasa
Rasa is the leading open generative conversational AI platform to build and deliver next-level AI assistants. With Rasa, brands can leverage the power of generative AI to create adaptive brand experiences for their users. By automating processes, improving customer satisfaction, and gathering valuable insights, Rasa enables brands to create exceptional customer interactions while reducing costs. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, Rasa ensures data privacy, security, and scalability for enterprises. Rasa is privately held, with funding from Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, and Basis Set Ventures. www.rasa.com
