NEWSROOM

Same show, 12 months later! One year ago, IBC 2018 saw LEXISTEMS introduce SensibleTV, the ultimate vocal interface to search, find and consume TV programs, VOD contents and additional services in true natural language, in several languages. Compared to existing solutions, the leap in performance, simplicity and user empowerment was noticed by the industry, leading to a number of partnerships among worldwide telcos, content providers and middleware designers.A wealth of world's premiere functionalitiesThis year, SensibleTV strengthens its technological advance with 3x more powerful AI models enabling the Graal in user interfaces: full context management and similarity inferences. Let's say you ask SensibleTV a simple question like "Find me the best family flicks with dogs this weekend". You get them instantly, aggregated from your VOD services like Netflix and the channels in your TV plan. Now say "and with cats or bees but not horses". Tada! You get new results, instantly refined, just matching your wishes. Of course, this applies to any kind of program features like actors (or directors, musicians, etc.), channels or services, broadcast time, and so on.Another example of SensibleTV's new superpowers is similarity inference. This serves instant results for queries like "I wanna see the best series like Friends that take place in New-York City". In conjunction with context management, change your mind and ask "or in Los Angeles" then "and like Law and Order". Voilà: you've got what you wanted. It's as simple as that, whatever the language used among those supported by SensibleTV, because SensibleTV works by meaning - not by keywords like its competition does.Fruitful demosThis was demonstrated on Sagemcom's elegant booth with Sagemcom's brand new devices and STBs, in both far-field (ambiant listening) and near-field (user-triggered listening from the remote) modes. Other demonstrations included implementations with or without already installed vocal assistants like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, as well as a prototype SensibleTV mobile app to pilot TV/VOD devices and services from your phone. Which, logically, led to new marks of interest among other majors in the industry, some of whom are currently becoming new LEXISTEMS partners...

Getting the EC's Seal of Excellence is no small feat in itself, but getting it upon initial proposal of a project is something quite rare, especially for a startup. LEXISTEMS is accordingly very proud to receive it for its SensibleTV solution (TV and VOD by Meaning), which is thereby deemed Excellent from both technology and market standpoints, and therefore ready for large-scale commercial deployment all over Europe and beyond.But what exactly is the Seal of Excellence? The Commission presents it as a quality label awarded to the best projects submitted to the EU's "H2020" Research and Innovation programme, in order to help funding bodies take advantage of the programme's highly competitive, 360° Evaluation process. The Seal of Excellence shows political commitment by displaying the signature of the Commissioners. It is digitally sealed against fraud, as is the evaluation summary report.In other words, the Commission recognizes the value of LEXISTEMS SensibleTV and validates the benefits it brings to services and contents providers (Telcos, VOD services...) as well as their end users. In addition to protecting data privacy by design - which is unique on the market - SensibleTV brings real-life understanding to devices, assistants and applications, and therefore true user empowerment in a home entertainment context. That's because SensibleTV is based on LEXISTEMS' Sensible.ai^® technology, which processes data by meaning. Compared to GAFAMs' solutions, which are all based on keywords, SensibleTV is a quantum leap in performance and ease of use, kind of like switching directly from 3G to 5G.

On April 8, 2019, the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on AI presented its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, following the publication of the Guidelines' first draft in December 2018 on which more than 500 comments were received through an open consultation.Now that the time has come for practicality, LEXISTEMS has been selected by the AI HLEG to participate in shaping the Guidelines' Trustworthy AI Assessment List, and more specifically to help define its application to the Telecommunications & Media sector.This is both a significant institutional recognition and an important cause to defend for LEXISTEMS, whose mission, as publisher of the Sensible.ai technology (Data by Meaning), includes a fundamental ethics dimension.In all its products derived from the Sensible.ai technology, LEXISTEMS promotes total data security and privacy by design. In effect, LEXISTEMS solutions, among which SensibleSearch and SensibleTV, rely on controllable components and do not hijack users or contents data. At all. They allow customers to run applications on their own premises / infrastructure, thereby preventing any code or data excursion to remote clouds of foreign, national interest-based jurisdiction.Far from just being a market positioning motto, this unique "Ethics by Design" approach carries numerous engineering and industrial requirements. These are precisely what LEXISTEMS intends to submit to the HLEG so that everyone in Europe, and possibly beyond, can rest assured that their everyday AIs are fully respectful of applicable laws and ethical values.

LEXISTEMS is now ranked within the Top 20 of startups by EarlyMetrics, the Rating Agency for Innovative SMEs, whose mission is to assess the growth potential of innovation ventures. "In addition to validating LEXISTEMS' growth strategy, this ranking helps LEXISTEMS customers, partners and investors better appreciate the company's achievements and objectives, which in turn brings trust and opportunities" said Marie Granier, LEXISTEMS CEO, upon receiving the post-rating report.EarlyMetric's screening and analysis process covers 50 dimensions that characterize the current stage of a startup's development, including technologies, products, market adequation, human resources, cash flow, etc. To guarantee independence and neutrality, the evaluation is free of charge, which is why EarlyMetrics' audience is growing quarter after quarter among incubators, accelerators, media and other key ecosystem players.

Can anyone imagine Boeing storing its data on a European Cloud? Or a Chinese law enforcement agency using a European software platform to analyze its big data? No, of course. And yet, that is frequently happening in Europe. A number of European companies and administrations choose to rely on non-European technologies for strategic activities and data processing - mainly AI-based - even though competitive alternatives of European origin and jurisdiction do exist. Should we try and do something about it? Probably, if only to secure the future of Europe's data and digital sovereignty. That was the topic of the conference that took place at the prestigious Hotel de L'Industrie in Paris.After Mr Villani, France's famous mathematician, Fields Medal recipient and now representative of the 5th Essones constituency, articulated the key takeaways from his government-mandated Report on Artificial Intelligence, the consensus among participants was clear. Europe has the economic means and intellectual resources to compete equally with the two other blocks. What we lack is an artificial intelligence strategy at European level.It is in this context that LEXISTEMS CEO Marie Granier, among other European AI companies' executives, pleaded again for the implementation of regulations similar to the American Patriot and Cloud Acts - or their Chinese implicit equivalents - and their application to AI at EU level. Everyone agrees that this is the mandatory bootstrap of a virtuous circle of funding, innovation, growth and autonomy in AI, with the ultimate objective to preserve our common economy, defense and culture. At the end of the conference, there was no doubt among attendees that artificial intelligence is both an industrial revolution, a change of civilization and an opportunity for Europe - should the authorities start to act on it.

Marie Granier, LEXISTEMS CEO, today accepted the function of Vice-President of Operation Lancelot, a non-profit initiative and businesses cluster to promote action for the protection of Europe's data and related assets at the ecosystem and institutional levels. Among participants are Qwant, Whaller, YooCan, DataValoris and others.Operation Lancelot is born from the observation that the new digital civilization impacts Europe's sovereignty at three levels: sovereignty over personal and business data, political sovereignty over a cyber-territory that is no longer geography-bound, and economic sovereignty in a global economic world. At the same time, the idea that control over our digital fate would already be split between the USA and China couldn't be more wrong. Dedicated regulations can still be passed and enforced. But nothing can be achieved if not at European level and scale.To that effect, Operation Lancelot will define a Digital Sovereignty Pact with commitments to be endorsed by officials and representatives. These commitments all revolve around the notion that protecting European data requires competitive European data technologies. For effectiveness, they will aim at creating business value, establishing european values as standards for digital ethics, and allowing for societal participation in the decision-making when it comes to fundamental digital questions. Marie Granier will be in charge of overseeing the promotion of this agenda for all matters regarding Artificial Intelligence.

CES is definitely the place to be when you have a truly disruptive digital innovation to introduce. After IBC in Amsterdam last September, this year's CES in Las Vegas was the occasion for LEXISTEMS to further demonstrate SensibleTV, its TV and VOD by Meaning solution, and prove its technological and business benefits compared to all the GAFAMs' keywords-based offerings combined.SensibleTV empowers users by enabling true natural language interactions with TVs, set-top boxes and VOD services. Equipped with SensibleTV, systems and applications really understand users, like in real life, and therefore deliver better results with more contents. SensibleTV does not, by design, capture any content or user data, and it allows customers to run applications entirely on their premises / infrastructure, thereby protecting assets and margins. Who can say the same among today's digital assistants?That is why LEXISTEMS, whose presence was kindly hosted on Sagemcom's private booth at The Venetian, was a must stop during the now famous "Telco Tour", a first-day event that gathers CTOs and CMOs from the worldwide telecom operators / M&E industries. It was an opportunity for LEXISTEMS to show SensibleTV to Comcast, Bell, Altice US and France, Orange, Netflix and others, a number of whom later came back for further private demos and business discussions. To be continued...

Interacting freely with a TV, a set-top box, a connected device... A promise made by many but that only LEXISTEMS delivers for real, today, in several languages.With the SensibleTV solution, just ask "Any family programs with dogs on mornings Thursday or Friday before 9 AM?" or "Find premiere romantic comedies in French with subtitles next week on my pay channels" and results arrive immediately, with a wealth of details on the returned programs when they show up on screen.That's what LEXISTEMS showed many telecom / TV / VOD operators from the entire world, on Sagemcom's spectacular IBC booth, using Sagemcom's set-top boxes equipped vith vocal remotes. And if it is any indication, the time spent by these professionals watching the demo and playing with the system themselves clearly revealed an utmost interest in SensibleTV's performance and possibilities. For end users, obviously, but also for operators as countless applicative opportunities combine with the benefit of keeping control of all exchanged data (which is where the value is).Based on LEXISTEMS' meaning-based data technologies, SensibleTV indeed outperforms all comparable 'big name' solutions scheduled for release in 2019. Why? Because SensibleTV isn't limited by the use of keywords or the number of intentions and entities to hardcode. Far from it's competitors' basic questions and simplistic queries, SensibleTV offers everyone a natural, intuitive experience in the consumption of media programs and additional services. Not to mention the most precise profiled recommendations system in this galaxy.So you didn't make it to IBC this year? Or you missed the demo? Here's the replay...

Intelligent interactions between man and data... that's what LEXISTEMS' meaning-based data technologies are about, as Marie Granier, LEXISTEMS CEO, explains on Capital TV - one of France's main business media (in French).When organizations abandon plain keywords and adopt meaning for data access and processing, added value is everywhere: employees feel empowered and become way more productive, customers finally get meaningful answers to their questions or enquiries, and machine-to-machine processes are capable of connecting data to automatically produce expert insights. Whatever the data type (text, geographical, digital or mathematical), structure (or lack thereof) or origin (corporate and/or public), whatever the user interface (from a simple search widget in a web or mobile app to a conversational chatbot), meaning is a powerful game changer, if only by turning the costs of producing and storing data into actionable business value and measurable ROI.Watch Marie elaborate in layman's terms...

"France has become a Startup Nation... From France, we are calling on Europe authorities to fulfil the continent's vocation as a world-class innovator. Europe is fully capable of making its own technological history without any insidious help from other blocks or countries." The first and last sentences of "L'Appel des Cadets" published in Economie Matin sum up perfectly the wishes and ambition of the co-signers (among whom YOOCAN, EELO, WHALLER and FTPE). In a context of defensive or inward-looking attitude, short-terms vision and resigned dependence on GAFAMs, Europe must more than ever position itself as an institutional incubator for the most innovative startups and an economic and societal magnet for the most brilliant minds. Let's hope that the Call, which follows Marie Granier's hearing by the E.U. Commission, will have the resonance it deserves...

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: en route to Augmented Computing... It is around this question - quite pregnant today among business leaders - that Club IT for Business hosted their Nantes Dinner at L'Atlantide 1874, a venue well known to the city gourmets. And it is Marie Granier, LEXISTEMS' CEO, who delivered the opening speech.Granier reminded the audience of leaders of the high stakes and broad implications of this industrial revolution and at the same time warned them against the temptation of rushing adoption, based solely on hype or the fear of missing out.The takeaway? Always consider AI ​​for what it really is, i.e. a set of technologies (imagery, natural language, predictive analysis...), not an end in itself. Using examples, Granier explained why a bottom-up approach is key to successful deployments: start from concrete business problems, then validate, with the help of field and technical experts, the relevance of applying AI rather than other technologies to tackle these problems in an efficient, sustainable and economical way.

In the context of consultations prior to possible legislative proposals, the E.U. Commission wanted to hear LEXISTEMS on the hot topic of European digital sovereignty. Marie Granier, CEO of the company, took the opportunity to remind the honorable assembly that the control of data is fundamentally dependent on the technologies with which data is accessed and that, therefore, actively fostering the emergence of European technologies, as our competitors do, may not necessarily be a bad idea.The big picture here is that the digitization of the world is accelerating and Europe faces losing its ability to control its data, i.e. its cultural, economic and military independence, i.e. its identity.Is it too late? Maybe not. In what she called an "Appeal of May 18", Marie Granier strongly urged its representatives that Europe immediately adopt more proactive structural policies, strengthen Commission- or State-owned structures and vote support budgets dimensioned for the magnitude and irreversibility of the issue.

It was in the welcoming setting of Novotel Nantes that took place a small committee lunch (hosted by ADN Ouest) whose purpose was to help identify common opportunities of value creation between the attendees. After she summed up the unique benefits of accessing and processing data by meaning, Marie Granier, LEXISTEMS' CEO, and Patrick Drahi, CEO of Altice, agreed on the major commercial interest of tagging media streams in real time based on meaning. Developments in this direction are under way at LEXISTEMS (the SensibleTags^® technology), which should quickly materialize in operational APIs and open the door to unprecedented business applications.With Alain Weill, CEO of SFR Group, the discussion naturally turned to multimedia content. It didn't take much time for everyone to agree that smart interactions between users, devices (TV, boxes, remote controls) and operators / content providers is a prime objective for the industry. "Smart" as in simple, intuitive, in natural language. Here too, LEXISTEMS technologies - SensibleTV and SensibleMedia - represent immediately applicable solutions, well ahead of what the industry and GAFAM are proposing. Not to mention the possibility for each of the parties to keep control of the exchanges and thus of the valuable data produced by these exchanges. At the end of the lunch, the consensus was that the general public should benefit from these innovations as early as 2019...