ADT Invests in Percepta Labs, “Ethical AI” Security Technology Startup
ADT Inc. announced today that, via its commercial channel, it is investing in Percepta Labs, an artificial-intelligence technology startup out of Philadelphia. ADT Commercial will work directly with Percepta to further test and develop the application of Percepta’s proprietary, socially responsible AI technology in commercial environments and facilitate the launch when the solution is market-ready.
Founded by Philippe Sawaya, Neil Gramopadhye and Jonathan Mak while pursuing their undergraduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, Percepta’s proprietary "ethical AI" technology responds to emerging concerns surrounding the use of facial recognition technologies and is designed to anonymize individuals’ demographic features — including race, gender and age — by analyzing existing security camera feeds to detect shoplifting incidents in real-time. Using advanced action recognition techniques, Percepta’s AI technology tracks individuals’ movements, scanning for probable shoplifting or precursory shoplifting behavior and assesses theft probability.