The Government has unveiled new technology designed to help identify terrorist content before it is posted online.
The company behind the technology is London-based start-up ASI Data Science, who worked with the Home Office to develop the tool for use on online platforms to spot and block the upload of terror content.
The Home Office contributed £600,000 of funding towards the new detection tool.
Founded in 2014, ASI Data Science specialises in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to real world issues, and describes itself as a “leader” in doing so for commercial and operational problems.
Tests show this new tool can identify 94% of Islamic State propaganda videos using a specially designed algorithm, and has an extremely high accuracy rate.
ASI has worked on more than 200 artificial intelligence projects, and says its previous clients include easyJet, Tesco and the BBC.
According to the company, its work with easyJet included building a predictive algorithm that used data from previous flights to work out how many bacon sandwiches to stock on-board in order to minimise food waste.
The firm has also worked with London Irish Rugby Football Club to build a programme that could identify affordable players with desirable attributes for the club – inspired by elite players who may be out of the club’s reach financially.
ASI has also created its own data science platform, Sherlock ML, a large cloud computing space for accessing large amounts of data, which can be used to design and test artificial intelligence models.
Chief executive and co-founder Dr Marc Warner was previously the Marie Curie fellow of Physics at Harvard University in the US.
The company also runs a fellowship programme to help PhDs and postdoctoral researchers begin careers as data scientists and engineers.