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Mastering the Four Challenges of Generative AI: Cost, Safety, Alignment, and Latency

Manoj Saxena, CEO and founder of Trustwise

The new generative AI wave has every company racing to implement large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Gemini, Llama and Mistral in their processes and products. However, these models are costly, energy-inefficient, and challenging to control, with many instances of companies facing legal issues due to LLM usage.

Building and operating these systems requires navigating a complex landscape marked by four critical dimensions: cost, safety, alignment, and latency. Innovative companies can employ strategies to deploy LLMs at scale by balancing trade-offs among these four critical dimensions. However, reducing costs can compromise safety and alignment, while improving safety and alignment typically increases costs and latency. Lowering latency often leads to higher costs. Finding the right balance is an optimization problem.

Trustwise Optimize:ai API addresses these challenges head-on and helps companies innovate confidently and efficiently with generative AI without compromising on performance or compliance.

First, let’s consider cost. Each token generated by LLMs incurs a cost, and excessive token generation can result from overly verbose responses, poor context awareness, improper document chunking, and non-optimal pipeline configurations. Trustwise Optimize:ai addresses this by optimizing token consumption through intelligent model selection, evaluations caching, and dynamic scaling. Our solution uses fine-tuned cheaper models, safety and alignment evaluations pre-caching, and adjusting RAG and AI pipeline parameters to reduce tokens, substantially cutting LLM usage costs without sacrificing relevance or performance.

The second dimension, safety, is paramount in AI applications. Trustwise Optimize:ai includes a set of research-based and client-validated metrics designed to detect and fix hallucinations and data leakage, ensuring that AI outputs are accurate and secure. Our algorithmic stress-testing and red teaming engine continually evaluates and improves the safety of AI models, providing a robust defense against potential vulnerabilities and prevention of sensitive data leakage.

Alignment with company policies and regulatory requirements is another critical challenge. Trustwise Optimize:ai includes sophisticated compliance cross-walks that integrate seamlessly into the AI pipeline. This ensures that AI outputs consistently adhere to corporate AI use policies and regulatory standards, such as the NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, and GDPR, reducing the risk of non-compliance and enhancing trust in AI applications.

Finally, latency can significantly impact the user experience and the feasibility of real-time applications. Trustwise Optimize:ai employs advanced techniques like parallelizing requests and chunking data to minimize latency. By using a hyper-parallelized architecture, we can process multiple LLM calls simultaneously, significantly reducing response times. This approach ensures that even large-scale applications can operate efficiently, providing timely and relevant outputs without excessive delays.

For instance, in a deployment for a leading global bank, Trustwise Optimize:ai optimized token consumption through intelligent model selection, safety and alignment evaluations caching, and dynamic GPU scaling. It evaluated and classified user inputs to determine the optimal response strategy by using the most cost-effective option that met safety, alignment, and latency performance requirements. In addition, sophisticated compliance cross-walks integrated into the AI pipeline ensured adherence of AI output to corporate policies and regulatory standards, such as NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, and GDPR, reducing non-compliance risks and enhancing trust.

This deployment resulted in a reduction of token consumption by 80% and a 64% decrease in carbon emissions, while ensuring 100% of AI system outputs aligned with corporate policies and regulations. By optimizing token usage and enhancing efficiency, Trustwise Optimize:ai API not only reduced costs but also supported sustainability goals and maintained compliance.

In summary, Trustwise Optimize:ai API addresses the four critical dimensions of cost, safety, alignment, and latency by employing a combination of advanced optimization techniques and robust crosswalks. This ensures that AI solutions are efficient, secure, compliant, and responsive, helping enterprises harness the full potential of generative AI while avoiding common deployment challenges.

Powering Reliable and Efficient AI Systems

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The following blog post was originally published by Hitachi Ventures on Medium, highlighting their investment in Trustwise.  

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), ensuring the performance, safety, and ethical deployment of AI systems is paramount. We are excited to announce our participation as the lead investor in the seed financing of Trustwise, a pioneer in generative AI application performance and risk management, along with Allstate Strategic Ventures, Firestreak Ventures and Grit Ventures.

Founded by Manoj Saxena (former GM of IBM Watson and 3x entrepreneur), Trustwise’s innovative approach to AI safety, cost efficiency, and environmental sustainability aligns perfectly with Hitachi Ventures’ focus on supporting responsible AI innovation. We are confident that Trustwise has the ability to unlock the full potential of generative AI for enterprises across various sectors by being the foundation of trust. Optimize:ai by Trustwise is a pioneering solution for managing performance, risk and environmental impact of AI. It offers developers an API to mitigate risks and cut costs linked to deploying Large Language Models (LLMs) in critical enterprise settings.

Trustwise is Addressing Critical AI Challenges

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1) Cost Efficiency

The operational costs associated with AI, particularly LLMs, can be prohibitive for a lot of enterprises. Trustwise Optimize:ai addresses this by routing the right prompt to the right LLM and reducing LLM operational costs by up to 80%. This significant cost reduction is achieved through advanced optimization techniques and dynamic model selection, making AI deployments more economically viable for enterprises.

2) Safety and Compliance

One of the most significant hurdles in deploying AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), is ensuring safety and compliance. Trustwise Optimize:ai excels in this area by providing robust AI safety and alignment controls. The platform actively mitigates risks such as hallucinations and data leakage, which are common issues with generative AI models. Optimize:ai not only adheres to internal corporate AI policies but also complies with major AI standards and regulations including EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF 1.0, RAISE Safety and Alignment Benchmarks by the Responsible AI Institute, and the SCI ISO software carbon intensity standard.

3) Environmental Sustainability

AI’s environmental impact is a growing concern. Training and large volumes of inference of models can result in substantial carbon emissions. Trustwise Optimize:ai leverages impact data from cloud providers and model providers to understand the impact of each model response and suggests the best alternative to reduce the carbon footprint of AI deployments by up to 64%.

What is Trustwise Optimize:ai and how does it work?

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Trustwise employs rigorous red-teaming and optimization of generative AI workloads through advanced APIs, datasets, and AI safety controls. This approach protects enterprises from potential AI failures and excessive expenses while having a strong understanding of the carbon footprint of their AI deployments.

Powered by THEO (Trustworthy High-Efficiency Optimizer), an optimization algorithm that continuously monitors AI safety and alignment, performs red-teaming and dynamically selects models for large-scale generative AI operations, supporting diverse AI models and architectures and ensuring that AI systems are both high-performing and safe all through a single API that integrates seamlessly with any AI model and cloud environment. This flexibility eliminates the risk of vendor lock-in and ensures that enterprises can leverage the best AI technologies without high switching costs and compatibility issues. This universal adapter approach is crucial for enterprises adopting AI across diverse platforms, environments and use cases.

Your AI Use case

Increasing value creation for enterprises

Trustwise has already demonstrated a significant impact across various industries specially across financial and healthcare institutions.

For example:

  • Lloyds Banking Group reported that Trustwise Optimize:ai significantly reduced their generative AI operational costs and carbon footprint while ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
  • NHS highlighted the platform’s ability to enhance patient care through reliable and accurate AI solutions, reinforcing the importance of trust and safety in healthcare AI applications.
  • Lyric Health emphasized the role of Trustwise in driving AI adoption in healthcare, ensuring cost control and compliance risk minimization.

Trustwise is not just a technological solution; but can be a strong strategic partner in our journey towards safe, efficient, and sustainable AI adoption.

We look forward to the continued success and impact of Trustwise.

CEO Open Letter

Trustwise: Unlocking AI’s Potential with Trust

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Manoj Saxena

Generative AI is expected to revolutionize productivity, creativity, and innovation across industries, but the reality has not yet fully lived up to the hype.

Why? Because throughout history, trustworthiness—not just technological innovation—has shaped the world.

Torches harnessed fire, circuit breakers secured electricity, and secure payment systems enabled e-commerce. Similarly, Generative AI must evolve to be safe and reliable, addressing the challenges and risks it currently presents.

Despite their impressive capabilities, the language models driving AI are like powerful engines without steering wheels—lacking the deep understanding needed to navigate the complexities of modern enterprises.

Trustwise is building the trust layer for generative AI, making AI products safe and reliable. Without this, AI cannot reach its full potential.

We believe trusted AI operates safely and responsibly, aligns with company’s goals, values, and regulations, and ensures cost and carbon efficiency.

For example, a trusted healthcare AI provides accurate diagnoses, protects patient data, and complies with regulations. A trusted banking AI offers reliable financial insights, protects against prompt manipulation, follows regulations, and optimizes costs.

Our Optimize:ai API ensures AI aligns with corporate policies and regulations, prevents data leakage and hallucinations, and reduces token consumption and carbon foot print by up to 80%. Unlike competitors, Trustwise ensures AI is safe, steerable, and cost-efficient.

I’m excited for a future where trusted AI drives new levels of productivity and innovation. Trustwise is leading the way by making AI human-centric and trustworthy, empowering businesses to innovate confidently.

I’m incredibly proud of the Trustwise team. Over the last 18 months, we have doubled our revenues, tripled our number of active engagements and headcount, and laid the groundwork for customers to redefine how they build and innovate with trustworthy AI systems.

But I’m even more proud of the mission we wake up every day to tackle: At Trustwise, we believe we’re shaping the future of technology for the next 100 years. We’re not just building a software product; we’re powering a foundation of trust and innovation that will enable advanced AI systems and powerful business models, redefining how AI integrates into business and society to enhance our lives. We’re not settling for anything less.

If you share our vision of building trustworthy, human-centric AI, join us on this journey.

Onwards!

Manoj Saxena

CEO and Founder

Trustwise Joins NVIDIA Inception Program

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At Trustwise, we build software that mitigates evolving AI risks and challenges so our customers can gain competitive advantages from AI while lowering their operational costs, increasing security and governance, and reducing carbon emissions. To further accelerate our innovation and growth, we’re proud to announce that we’ve been accepted into NVIDIA Inception, a program that nurtures startups revolutionizing industries with technological advancements. 

The Inception program will provide Trustwise with access to NVIDIA’s cutting-edge technology and go-to-market support to help deliver NVIDIA’s Inference Microservice (NIM) platform-based generative AI (GenAI) solution to customers, enabling them to rapidly develop their GenAI systems. The program also gives Trustwise the opportunity to collaborate with industry-leading experts and other AI-driven organizations.

Trustwise Optimize:ai accelerates the development of trustworthy GenAI systems while enabling enterprises to run applications and workloads efficiently across cloud, data center, and edge infrastructures. Optimize:ai, delivered through a single API, provides developers with four NIM microservices to reduce operational costs and carbon emissions:

  • Safe:ai NIM reduces risk of hallucinations and data leaks in GenAI systems by up to 20x using fine-tuned models for industry-leading hallucination detection.
  • Align:ai NIM ensures that GenAI systems are in compliance with corporate policies, industry, and governmental regulations, including the European Union AI Act, NIST AI RMF 1.0, Responsible AI Institute RAISE Safety and Alignment Benchmarks, and SCI ISO software carbon intensity standard.
  • Efficient:ai NIM optimizes the costs associated with developing GenAI systems by using advanced caching, chunking, and pareto optimization techniques and deliver up-to 5x reductions.
  • Green:ai NIM helps understand and reduce carbon impact of AI systems by up to 3x using SCER rating along with carbon maps for data centers globally.

Trustwise’s customers benefit from the company’s participation in Inception as it helps relieve their developers from the hassles of creating custom microservices or the complexity of third party integrations that might not be compatible with their infrastructure.

“As a participant in the NVIDIA Inception program, Trustwise is excited to leverage NIM to ensure our Optimize:ai solutions run efficiently across various enterprise environments, including cloud, data centers, and edge. NVIDIA NIM’s ability to handle the complexity of modern AI workloads aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver advanced AI applications that require robust, reliable, and efficient performance. Our participation in NVIDIA enables Trustwise to continue innovating with cutting-edge technology,” said Manoj Saxena, founder and CEO of Trustwise.

NVIDIA Inception helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping, and deployment. Every Inception member gets a custom set of ongoing benefits, such as NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute credits, preferred pricing on NVIDIA hardware and software, and technological assistance, which provides startups with the fundamental tools to help them grow.

Visit this page and sign up for our First Optimization for Free program and schedule a demo.

The Launch of Trustwise Optimize:ai

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Trustwise Launches With $4 Million Round From Hitachi Ventures to Solve Generative AI Safety and Efficiency

Trustwise Optimize:ai reduced LLM operational costs by 80%, decreased carbon footprint by 64%, and detected 40% more AI safety and alignment issues than other vendors on the market

AUSTIN, TX – June 18, 2024 – Trustwise, a pioneer in generative AI application performance and risk management, today announced its official launch, the release of its Optimize:ai product, and $4 million in seed financing. Led by Hitachi Ventures with participation from Firestreak Ventures and Grit Ventures, this investment will enable the company to speed up the development of cost and risk optimized generative AI prototypes for various industries, accelerate its go-to-market and partnership strategy, and further its research initiatives.

Trustwise Optimize:ai is a first-of-its-kind generative AI application performance and risk management solution that provides developers with an API to eliminate risks and reduce the growing costs associated with deploying large language models (LLMs) in high-stakes enterprise environments. By rigorously red-teaming and optimizing generative AI workloads using its advanced APIs, datasets, and AI safety and alignment controls, Trustwise safeguards enterprises from potential AI failures and excessive costs. Optimize:ai aligns with major AI standards and regulations, including the European Union AI Act, NIST AI RMF 1.0, Responsible AI Institute RAISE Safety and Alignment Benchmarks, and SCI ISO software carbon intensity standard.

“Enterprise leaders face a double-edged sword in AI strategy: while promising next-level innovation and productivity gains, LLMs also bring significant safety risks, cost burdens, and environmental impacts,” said Gayathri Radhakrishnan, partner at Hitachi Ventures. “Trustwise’s experienced and world-class team is set to provide the much-needed generative AI optimization capabilities that will enable developers to create safe, efficient, and high-performing AI systems.”

AI’s Risk Trifecta: Skyrocketing Expenses, Carbon Emissions and LLM Vulnerabilities

Generative AI systems too often produce inaccurate results, do not adhere to internal and external policies and regulations, and are costly and energy inefficient, with many instances of companies facing legal repercussions.

  • Risk and safety:
    Hallucinations and sensitive data leakage significantly erode user trust in AI systems, which is crucial for widespread adoption. According to GitHub Hallucinations Leaderboard, popular LLMs like GPT-3, LLaMA, Gemini, and Claude hallucinate between 2.5% and 8.5% of the time when summarizing text.
  • Skyrocketing demand and expenses:
    Businesses are recognizing the potential of this technology, but they’re also cautious about the costs. AI cost worries have surged 14x in the past year according to a study by LucidWorks.
  • Environmental repercussions: A University of Massachusetts Amherst study found that training a common large AI model can emit more than 626,000 pounds (284 metric tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is nearly five times the lifetime emissions of the average American car, including its manufacturing.

“At Trustwise, we understand the challenges enterprises face with generative AI, including safety risks, high costs, and environmental impacts,” said Manoj Saxena, CEO and founder of Trustwise. “For example, compared to a traditional Google search, a ChatGPT query costs around 36 times more, uses 1000 times more energy, and has safety issues like hallucinations and data leakage. After nearly two years of co-development with clients in highly regulated industries, the launch of Optimize:ai makes AI safe, compliant, and economically and environmentally viable.”

Trustwise Optimize:ai: The New Standard for GenAI Safety, Cost, and Sustainability

Trustwise Optimize:ai cuts AI costs and risks by up to 15x. In current customer deployments, it achieved 80% reduction in LLM and compute costs, a 64% decrease in carbon footprint and detected 40% more AI safety and alignment issues than other vendors on the market.

“With Optimize:ai, we’ve developed a cutting-edge optimization solution that not only significantly reduces operational costs and carbon emissions but also enhances the safety and alignment of AI systems,” said Matthew Barker, head of AI research and development at Trustwise. “Our team is dedicated to continuously applying state-of-the-art AI technologies to ensure they are safe, economically and environmentally sustainable, setting new industry standards in the process.”

Optimize:ai is powered by THEO (Trustworthy High Efficiency Optimizer), an optimization foundation model from Trustwise that continuously monitors safety and alignment, performs red teaming, and dynamically selects models for large-scale generative AI operations, supporting diverse AI models and architectures.

Customer Quotes

“We are committed to leveraging AI to enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and drive strategic decision-making, all while maintaining cost-effectiveness, robust data security, and environmentally conscious practices,” said Dr Paul Dongha, group head of data and AI ethics at Lloyds Banking. “Trustwise Optimize:ai has demonstrated game-changing capabilities for us by significantly reducing our generative AI operational costs and carbon footprint, and ensuring our AI outputs align with internal business policies, ethical guidelines, and external regulations. Based on the success of early experimental results, we are now considering scaling Optimize:ai across the organization and including it as a key part of our AI assurance framework.”

“In the NHS, we recognize AI’s transformative potential to revolutionize patient care and drive operational efficiencies. As we adopt these cutting-edge technologies, we remain committed to the highest standards of data security, cost control, and environmental sustainability,” said Dr. Hatim Abdulhussein, CEO of Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, part of the Health Innovation Network established by NHS England. “Our partnership with Trustwise has demonstrated powerful, safe, and cost-efficient ways to unlock AI’s full benefits while maintaining public trust and confidence.”

“At Lyric, we pride ourselves on being a healthcare technology leader, using machine learning, AI, predictive analytics, and our recently launched 42 platform to help payers unlock greater value while improving payment accuracy and integrity,” said Raj Ronanki, CEO of Lyric. “We understand the vital role of AI trust and safety. Solutions such as those offered by Trustwise are key to driving generative AI adoption in healthcare, ensuring that costs are controlled, and compliance risks are minimized.”

Availability

Trustwise Optimize:ai is now generally available. Visit this page to read the company’s technical papers, view product demos, and sign up for a free trial to unlock the potential of safe, cost efficient, and sustainable AI.

Resources 

  • Event: Join Trustwise at the AI Hardware and Edge AI Summit in London. The keynote on responsible and efficient infrastructure scaling in enterprise systems will be presented on June 18, 2024 at 10:25 a.m. GMT+1 by Trustwise CEO and founder Manoj Saxena and Paul Dongha, group head of data and AI ethics at Lloyds Banking Group.
  • More information: https://trustwise.ai/
  • Follow Trustwise on social media: LinkedIn, X, and YouTube

About Trustwise

Trustwise helps organizations innovate confidently and efficiently with generative AI. Its flagship product, Trustwise Optimize:ai, is a first of a kind generative AI application performance and risk management API that performs red-teaming and provides a robust AI safety, cost, and risk optimization layer for high-stakes enterprise environments. Trusted by enterprises across various highly regulated industries, Optimize:ai API works with any AI model, supports various cloud, on-premises, and edge architectures, and is capable of handling large-scale generative AI operations and workloads. Founded in 2022 by a successful serial entrepreneur and the first general manager of IBM Watson, Trustwise is backed by leading investors and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with research labs in Cambridge, UK, and New York.

Media Contacts

Audrey Briers
Bhava Communications for Trustwise
trustwise@bhavacom.com 
+1 (858) 522-0898