The Heidelberg-based start-up Aleph Alpha is emerging as a leading European company in the research and development of generative AI technology. Materna has entered into a strategic partnership with Aleph Alpha specifically for the public sector, with the aim of rapidly driving forward the benefits of large language models within public administration. Using the AI language models developed and operated by Aleph Alpha in Germany, Materna is meeting the high demand for digitalisation solutions that support the sovereignty of public administration in Germany.
“We are delighted to have found a technology partner in Aleph Alpha that shares our European values regarding sovereignty, data protection and ethics. Together, we aim to unlock the potential within public administration with the help of Luminous. At Materna, we are now fully equipped to support our clients’ strategic goals in their search for innovative, sovereign and secure solutions,” says Michael Hagedorn, Executive Director of the Public Sector at Materna.
Jonas Andrulis, founder and CEO of Aleph Alpha GmbH, says: “In Materna, we have gained an important partner that plans to deploy AI technology securely, efficiently and in line with European values. As a family-run business, Materna has enjoyed an excellent reputation for decades for implementing high-performance technologies for the public sector. Building on this, we will together significantly expand the range of trustworthy AI solutions for the public sector and help establish robust structures in security-critical areas.”
There is high demand for the new possibilities offered by generative AI, particularly from the public sector, one of Materna’s key target sectors. The Materna Generative AI Factory, based on Aleph Alpha’s language models, is the answer to this need.
With the Materna Generative AI Factory, public authorities can generate information from their public and internal data that assists colleagues in their day-to-day work across all work processes, specialist procedures or reports, whilst simplifying and accelerating communication with citizens and businesses (e.g. on portals). Communication takes place in natural language and is multilingual for all parties involved. In addition to German, other languages are also available ‘natively’ in Luminous.
An important area of application for generative AI is the explainability of results. Aleph Alpha is the only company worldwide to offer a feature ensuring the explainability of AI-generated content. This means that responses generated by the AI language model can always be understood on the basis of the knowledge provided. This is particularly useful in the highly complex and often ambiguous field of law, but also applies to many other subjects. Here, the Materna Generative AI Factory, in collaboration with Luminous, not only provides these explanations at source level for texts, but can also do so for images (multi-modality).
The Materna Generative AI Factory prioritises data protection and security, as it enables direct deployment within public authorities’ data centres. This is not even currently provided for by other LLM (Large Language Model) or GPT providers.
At the NRW Public Transport Symposium on 6 September 2023, public authorities can find out more about Materna’s AI solutions. Gen AI will also be a key topic at the Materna Digital Industries Summit, the CXO networking event of the year, taking place on 28 September in Cologne. Renowned experts will be discussing the significance and potential of this new, disruptive technology at the event.
