- Sentropy, a company that is developing tools for detecting online abuse, announced recently that it raised $13 million in funding
Sentropy, a company that is developing tools for detecting online abuse, announced recently that it raised $13 million in funding and exited stealth mode, according to VentureBeat. Some of the company’s employees have worked at Apple, Microsoft, and Palantir. Several of the company founders worked together at Lattice Data (acquired by Apple) — which is a company that collaborated with government agencies to combat human trafficking by combing through dark web forums.
Sentropy’s main product has been in private testing since June 2019 and it offers API access for classification technologies. The Sentropy Defend product offers end-to-end moderation workflows and it utilizes tools for identifying different forms of abuse and tracking behavioral trends.
Even with a simple sentence, Sentropy is able to detect attacks, threats, and hate speech based on gender, race, sexual orietation, religion, political affiliations, etc. And it can detect insults referring to a person’s physical traits and indications of self-harm.
Sentropy has been minimizing any potential bias in its systems through embedded bias mitigation and deep bias mechanisms. While the company was in private beta, the company traced the speed that anti-Asian racism spread within the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to account for new racist phrases.
“Spending time in digital communities, one thing that stands out is the rapid pace at which language morphs and develops over time,” said a Sentropy spokesperson via VentureBeat. “Machine learning aids (communities) in detecting totally new linguistic signals — all so that (they) can better protect those who are most vulnerable to abuse.”
This round of funding was provided by Initialized Capital along with King River Capital, Horizons, Playground Global, founders and leaders from Riot Games, Nextdoor, Twitch, OpenAI, Twitter, and a former head of state.
