By Kristina Davis / published in The San Diego Union Tribune
Aug. 24, 2019
...The nonprofit turned to Semantic AI, a San Diego-based company, for its computing power. Its program runs on augmented intelligence, using human skill, intuition and decision-making to help make sense of thousands of pieces of disparate data, according to Nick Oben, Semantic AI’s director of innovation solutions. Rather than replace humans, as artificial intelligence does, augmented intelligence makes humans better at their job.
The company, with origins at San Diego State University and its headquarters in Point Loma, was already working with the Pentagon and was looking to branch into helping non-governmental organizations.
CINTOC’s first project, mapping poaching networks in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, was an eye-opening exercise demonstrating Semantic’s abilities.
While the Akasha brothers were under investigation by the DEA, Miles and Peters procured grants from the U.S. State Department and USAID to map ivory trafficking routes in east Africa.