RAIC Labs, formerly Synthetaic, is an American

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI) company founded in 2019 and headquartered in Delafield,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

History

RAIC Labs, formerly Synthetaic, was founded in 2019 by Corey Jasksolski, a

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

explorer and fellow. After creating a 3D digitization of a living Sumatran Rhino using a custom imaging system he built, Jaskolski wondered whether synthetic data could be used to train AI. While RAIC Labs doesn't sell

synthetic data Synthetic data are artificially generated rather than produced by real-world events. Typically created using algorithms, synthetic data can be deployed to validate mathematical models and to train machine learning models. Data generated by a comp ...

, its software uses generative capabilities associated with synthetic data. In 2021, RAIC Labs developed Rapid Automatic Image Categorization, or RAIC, a

computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...

software which performs

classification Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

and

detection {{Unreferenced, date=March 2018 In general, detection is the action of accessing information without specific cooperation from with the sender. In the history of radio communications, the term "detector" was first used for a device that detected ...

on photography, video, and

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

without data labeling. RAIC is notable for its use of human collaboration with an unsupervised AI model, which allows for iteration upon the algorithm in real-time. RAIC has been described as "

ChatGPT ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released on November 30, 2022. It uses large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4o as well as other Multimodal learning, multimodal models to create human-like re ...

for satellite imagery," since it uses

transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

to understand imagery in a way somewhat similar to how ChatGPT understands human language. In May 2023, satellite imaging company

Planet Labs Planet Labs PBC (formerly Planet Labs, Inc. and Cosmogia, Inc.) is a publicly traded American Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. Their goal is to image the entirety of the Earth daily to monitor changes and pinpoint tren ...

announced an official partnership with RAIC Labs, formerly Synthetaic, through which they would sell RAIC insights for defined areas of interest within Planet data. RAIC Labs, formerly Synthetaic, announced a strategic partnership with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in August 2023. Elements of the partnership included selection for Microsoft's Pegasus Program and access to one million hours of

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

cloud computing Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...

via

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, or just Azure ( /ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ ''AZH-ər, AY-zhər'', UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ ''AZ-ure, AY-zure''), is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of ...

2023 Tracking the Chinese balloon

On 11 February 2023, RAIC Labs, formerly Synthetaic, used its RAIC product to detect a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in archival

data. RAIC's demonstrated ability to quickly analyze Earth observation imagery at scale was deemed novel and a potential "game-changer" by experts including Arthur Holland Michel and Hamed Alemohammad. RAIC Labs / Synthetaic's work tracking the balloon formed the basis for a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

visual investigation, which credited RAIC for providing the precise coordinates of the balloon at twelve different points during its journey.

Balloons over East Asia

Later that year,

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

news magazine program '' Panorama'' reported additional Chinese surveillance balloons detected over Japan and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. Security correspondent Gordon Corera cited Synthetaic's RAIC as a tool in their investigation and interviewed Jaskolski.

2023 Mapping the Israel–Gaza war

RAIC Labs worked closely with

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

to provide detections of craters in geospatial data to map the war. Working with the American and International teams, RAIC was able to detect more than 500 impact craters over 123 meters in diameter, for their report
‘Not seen since Vietnam’: Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza, analysis shows
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Funding

In February 2024, Synthetaic raised $15 million in Series B funding.

References

{{reflist American companies established in 2019 Artificial intelligence companies Computer vision software Software companies based in Wisconsin Software companies established in 2019 Technology companies of the United States