Media business works to advocate for AI and small business

Ben Johnson and Freya Systems of Media can easily show how AI is helpful with everyday functions, not a Hollywood version of the “Terminator.”

“AI should augment humans, not replace us,” Johnson, CEO of Freya Systems, said.

Founded in 2009, Freya Systems leverages advanced analytics and AI-enabled methods to identify operational efficiencies and anticipate maintenance requirements. It has clients in the defense, commercial aviation and water utility industries.

With regards to federal regulations, Johnson said, “One of my biggest concerns is AI. There’s lots of ways you can slice it up.”

The Cliff Notes version is that there are two types of AI: artificial general intelligence and artificial narrow intelligence.

Johnson explained that about 5% of research is geared toward artificial general intelligence and is the type glamorized in movies with robots having somewhat human form.

About 95 percent, he said, falls into the artificial narrow intelligence in which very targeted algorithms solve one particular problem.

“In Delaware County, we created an algorithm for DELCORA, which helped them to optimize their processes and helped them save energy,” Johnson said. “It was a win for us because we got the business. It was a win for them because they saved some money.”

He explained that Freya Systems created an algorithm for DELCORA’s aeration blowers.

The Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority has wastewater facilities that serve 500,000 people in Delaware and Chester counties. It collects an average 60 million gallons of wastewater flow each day.

As part of processing that much wastewater, there is an aeration system with four blowers, each of about 500 horsepower.

“One of our largest expenses here at the authority is our aeration system,” Clint Swope, DELCORA’s remote systems manager said.

He said Freya Systems first came to DELCORA pitching different ideas.

“When I heard what they were doing, I thought it would be interesting,” Swope said, especially if it allowed the authority to save money and make it more efficient. “They proposed what they could do. It was outside of the box of what they were originally going to do.”

He said it was perfect timing as the authority began to dabble in AI and was looking to get into that type of technology.

Johnson explained that the algorithm Freya Systems designed was to alert staff when the fourth blower is about to turn on.

“It doesn’t even do anything,” Johnson said, adding that it’s up to an employee to take action.

All the program does is alert DELCORA, “Hey, you should maybe consider stopping this blower from going on.”

“So it’s still an operator (that) makes a decision to change it,” he said. “It’s giving advice and spotting patterns that we as humans would not.”

With the program having been installed two years ago, Swope said he’d use Freya Systems again.

“We had a closed network here at DELCORA,” he said. “They had no problem with working with what we needed and around our requirements.”

In addition, as AI becomes more a part of general vernacular, Johnson has been looking at ways to advocate on behalf of the technology, particularly for small businesses.

It started in April 2021 when he attended the Goldman Sachs-run 10,000 Small Businesses program, which Johnson likened to a micro-MBA program for small businesses.

There, he was introduced to the idea of advocacy. It was there, too, that he met Luke O’Connell, a staff member for U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5, of Swarthmore.

With both his business and his home in her district, he invited her to visit, which she did in early August.

“It was great to be able to have the congresswoman sit down and listen and for us to have a dialogue about AI,” Johnson said, noting that he had concerns about current policy.

“The current advisory is to all the Big Tech. What’s going to happen is it’s going to create regulation which is going to become so onerous on a business like ours. It’s going to regulate us out of the market.”

He said it’s very difficult because there are a lot of concerns with AI.

“Narrow stuff like ours, it has to be done with an ethical mindset and an intent of what that is,” Johnson said, adding that his ask was to be consulted on these issues to be a part of the conversation.

“I always ask for a fair chance,” he said. “I’m not asking for charity or a open hand.”

Johnson said artificial general intelligence is equated to a human and it isn’t like that.

“It doesn’t think like a human,” he said. “Allowing AI to write code — if it can write code, it can amend it’s own code — it self improves. It can do it at a faster rate than a human.”

Artificial narrow intelligence, he explained, has a more tightly bound set of rules and is easier and more straightforward.

“That should be the starting point because that’s 95% of what’s being created,” Johnson said.

He gave examples such as a chess app when you play the automated version, not with players.

“It thinks in some way,” Johnson said.

Another example is sensors in cars that alert the driver when they are too close to an object.

As AI becomes more prevalent, the Media executive said he hopes to have more conversation with policymakers so that his business can continue to help.

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