-- The woman-owned company’s AI solutions equip frontline workers in the public sector to protect the vulnerable and end systemic exploitation.
-- Marinus Analytics deploys empowering tools to disrupt human trafficking, child abuse, and cyber fraud.
-- Only U.S. Finalist out of 780 Competitors
The Marinus team celebrates the win!
PITTSBURGH (June 23, 2021)—Marinus Analytics, the Pittsburgh-based technology company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to fight human trafficking, has taken third place in IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition.
The organization announced the decision of its 20-member international jury during a live-cast virtual ceremony earlier today. Marinus Analytics is the only U.S.-based finalist from a field that began with 780 entrants. The third-place accolade comes with a $500,000 award.
“We are beyond thrilled and honored with this recognition of our work,” said Marinus Analytics President and CoFounder Emily Kennedy. “This means we can invest more resources to find more victims, detect more organized crime rings globally, and expand our work in the areas of child protection and cyber fraud.
Spanning five years, the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition began in 2016 with 780 submissions, which was narrowed in 2017 to 147 companies representing 22 countries. Canada’s Aifred Health and Israel’s Zzapp Malaria were the remaining finalists in the prestigious international competition.
“We congratulate our peers at Aifred Health and Zzapp Malaria and urge the public to learn more about the important work they do,” said Kennedy. “They are truly exemplars of how technology is being deployed to make the world a safer and healthier place.”
Marinus Analytics' software saved more than 70,000 investigative hours in 2020 alone, enabling public servants to focus time on recovering more victims and breaking up more organized crime rings.
Founded in 2014 out of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Marinus Analytics uses AI to get actionable insights out of big data to empower a victim-centered response and serve experts working on the front lines of public safety. The flagship tool, Traffic Jam, revolutionizes the way detectives are able to stop and prevent human trafficking, recover victims, and dismantle organized criminal networks, by deploying graph analytics to detect organized crime and purpose-driven algorithms to identify vulnerability indicators, informing frontline professionals to hidden exploitation.
“We dedicate this XPrize to all of the front line public safety and social services professionals who protect our communities and we are honored to partner with them,” says Cara Jones, CEO and CoFounder of Marinus Analytics. “This is their victory as well.”
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $6 Million XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing, the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling, and $500K Pandemic Response Challenge. For more information, visit xprize.org.
Listen to Kennedy describe the story and impact of Marinus Analytics.
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