With artificial intelligence moving at the speed of light, the time is right for KPMG to make its AI arm a standalone company.
Cranium, which was developed about two years ago in the firm’s incubator unit, will be the first spin out ever from the conglomerate on Wednesday, to capitalize on the swift evolution of AI.
"It feels like it went very fast the last six months, primarily because of things like ChatGPT and generative AI and ML [machine learning] Technologies" Jonathan Dambrot, Founder & CEO, Cranium, told FOX Business.
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Dambrot and the KPMG team behind Cranium, which powers AI security, recognized it could meet the needs of more clients out from under KPMG’s thumb.
"It's one of the only technologies that exists today that is developed with the intent of protecting AI systems and securing a system. So this is needed in the market and our clients need it. We are more interested in building the services, the compliance, the security services around this type of technology" explained Cliff Justice, KPMG U.S. National Leader, Enterprise Innovation.
Cranium, whose name was mirrored against the human cranium, the skull that protects the brain, counts financial services, life sciences and consumer product companies as big clients.
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Tech giants including Google, Amazon and Microsoft, which are also beefing up their AI push, can function with Cranium.
"We formed our relationships with them already. And what we've done is we've integrated them into our platform so that, you know, as an example, if you're using Microsoft Azure now, we can actually integrate into the ecosystem, get very close to the pipeline. Our architecture basically is such that we can get visibility into the major hyperscalers in every part of your organization" Dambot added.
The firm locked in a fresh round of seed funding with venture capital firm CYN Ventures and plans the next round or Series A, later this year. A potential initial public offering is not on the table right now.
With a staff of 30 dubbed "craniacs," the firm is hiring with the main focus on building up the business and having a voice within the industry, including future regulation, as AI continues its rapid ascent.
Last week, Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and a host of other tech leaders and artificial intelligence experts called on AI labs to pause development in an open letter citing potential risks to society.
"Powerful AI systems should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable," the letter issued by the Future of Life Institute, a Musk funded organization, stated.
Musk, CEO of Tesla, uses AI in his self-driving vehicles. He also owns Twitter, SpaceX and The Boring Company, a developer of underground tunnel transportation systems.
