Data protection company Patented.ai has successfully raised $4 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Cooley LLP and various angel investors.
Based in San Francisco, the startup is dedicated to safeguarding intellectual property from being leaked to artificial intelligence. Patented.ai offers an on-device solution called LLM Shield, designed for data privacy and data loss prevention. LLM Shield scans devices for large language models’ input box text to filter sensitive information, trade secrets, and personally identifiable information (PII) before it can be intercepted, analyzed, or stored.
The solution also encrypts data to ensure security during transit or while at rest. Patented.ai plans to utilize the funding to enhance LLM Shield’s capabilities for the enterprise segment.
Additionally, the company has introduced a personal version of LLM Shield, available for free on up to three devices, providing the same on-device data checks and protections as the enterprise version.
LLM Shield by Patented.ai is easily installable using existing endpoint management solutions and is compatible with both Windows and macOS.
The company also offers a Chrome plugin to assist Chrome Enterprise users in deploying protection on their devices. Founder Wayne Chang highlights the crucial role of data privacy in the age of AI, stating, “AI is revolutionizing productivity across industries, but there’s a silent crisis quietly threatening its potential. Data privacy and confidentiality are hanging by a thread.”
The introduction of a personal version of LLM Shield aims to empower individuals to safeguard their personal information from large language models, addressing the growing concerns around data privacy and confidentiality in the era of artificial intelligence.
