Babak Hodjat

Babak Hodjat (Persian: بابک حجت; born in 1967) was the co-founder and CEO of Sentient Technologies and now holds the position of Vice President of Evolutionary AI at Cognizant. He is a specialist in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Dr.[1][2][3]

Babak Hodjat
Babak Hodjat at the Collision Conference (April 2017)
Born (1967-11-01) November 1, 1967
Wimbledon, England
NationalityIranian
CitizenshipIranian, British, United States
EducationKyushu University (2003), Sharif University of Technology (1995)
OccupationComputer scientist
Years active1984 – Present
Known forCo-inventor of natural language technology that contributed to the development of Siri[4][5]
TitleVice President of Evolutionary AI, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.
ChildrenArash DeMaxi
Websitewww.sentient.ai

Biography

Career in science

Babak Hodjat was born in 1967 in Wimbledon (London). He studied at Sharif University of Technology from 1986 to 1995 and received his Master of Science degree in software engineering. In 1994, together with another computer department student Hormoz Shahrzad presented their research titled Introducing a dynamic problem solving scheme based on a learning algorithm in artificial life environments at the first IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence held at Orlando.

Hodjat received a PhD in machine intelligence from Kyushu University in 2003 During his time there, he published several works on adaptive agent oriented software architecture[6] and natural language user interfaces.[6]

Career in business

Hodjat moved to California in 1998 and founded Dejima Inc. (named after the historic Japanese Dejima artificial island). The firm was based on a patented adaptive agent-oriented software engineering platform developed by Hodjat, Christopher Savoie and Makoto Amamiya.[7] Hodjat served as the CTO[8] and as the CEO for 9 months from October 2000.[9] By 2000 the company had offices in San Jose, London and Tokyo.[8]

In 2002, the company developed a voice control Natural Interaction Platform (NPI) in collaboration with the Stanford University's research group Archimedes Project.[10] During these years Hodjat continued his research on agent oriented software architecture[11] and natural language user interfaces.[6] In July 2003, Dejima got funding from SRI International within the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project of DARPA and worked on a Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL) initiative.[12][13] Hodjat was the primary inventor of the firm's agent-oriented technology applied to intelligent interfaces for mobile and enterprise computing – a technology that eventually led to Siri.[9]

In April 2004, Dejima was acquired by Sybase iAnywhere.[14][15] Hodjat served as Senior Director of Engineering at Sybase iAnywhere[2] from 2004 to 2008, where he developed AvantGo Platform, mBusiness Anywhere and Answers Anywhere.[9][16] In 2006, he co-founded MobileVerbs Inc.,[3] a mobile marketing service company, which was acquired by iLoop Mobile in February 2010.[17]

In 2007, he teamed with Antoine Blondeau (former CEO of Dejima) and Adam Cheyer (Dejima's vice president and Chief Architect of the CALO project[18]) to establish Genetic Finance Holding Ltd. (where he began as CTO). In 2014 the firm became Sentient Technologies.[19] Hodjat was joined by his long-time research fellow Hormoz Shahrzad who became Principal Scientist,[9] while Hodjat held the position of Chief Scientist.[20][21]

In the following years Hodjat has worked on developing massively distributed computing technology and improving machine-learning technique known as evolutionary algorithms.[21] One area that gained special attention from the press was applying Sentient Technologies algorithms to a stock market trading through specially created Sentient Investment Management hedge fund.[22][23][24]

Following the management change within Sentient Technologies, Hodjat became the company's CEO in February 2017. He continues his business and educational projects (he was on the jury of IBM Watson AI XPRIZE[25] and the Merit Awards committee for the ISAL Award).[26]

Writing

Hodjat is the author of The Konar and the Apple: Fun, Beauty, and Dread--From Ahwaz to California (January 2022; ISBN 978-1-7354860-1-7). An eight-year-old boy assigned the task of throwing flowers during the Shah's visit. A teenager in boot camp eager to catch episodes of a popular Japanese TV show. An adult coming to the United States, ready to make his mark in the tech world.

These are just some of the personal experiences shaping Hodjat's intimate narrative of a boy growing up in post-revolutionary Iran. The stories paint a picture of a middle-class, westernized boy experiencing all the common—and uncommon—adventures of childhood and self-discovery.

Blending both humor and insight, The Konar and the Apple transcends culture to celebrate the fun, innocence, and anticipation of growing up that unite us all.

Hodjat has also written a science-fiction novella, "The Narrator" (March 2023; ISBN 978-1-7354860-0-0). Set in the near future, "The Narrator" is about an app that creates a story based on one’s life, complete with genres and characters to choose from. Fraught with suspense, The Narrator is a foreboding of the power of technology, and asks the urgent question: How much of our lives is guided by free will and can we get back control before it’s too late?

Selected publications

Patents

Babak Hodjat holds 21 patents in the fields of agent-oriented programming, natural language decision engines, distributed evolutionary algorithms for asset management and trading and data mining.[27]

References
  1. Hörður Ægisson skrifar (2017-05-11). "Segir stafræna tækni vera að umbylta fjármálamarkaðnum" [Supports digital technology to transform the financial market] (in Icelandic). visir.is. Archived from the original on 2017-05-15. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  2. "Babak Hodjat's Page". WIRED Innovation Insights. Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  3. "Babak Hodjat's Page". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  4. Britta Weddeling (2017-01-23). "Zu Besuch beim Vater von "Siri"" [Visiting the father of "Siri"] (in German). Handelsblatt. Archived from the original on 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  5. Eugene Kim (2016-09-10). "The inventor of Siri's backend technology says Amazon's Echo and Alexa are 'incomplete'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 2016-12-12. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  6. "Babak Hodjat's scientific contributions". Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  7. Hodjat, Babak; Savoie, Christopher J.; Amamiya, Makoto (2000-11-07). "Adaptive agent-oriented software architecture: US 6144989 A". Google Patents. Archived from the original on 2016-05-22. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  8. "Dejima Training and New Development Tools Change the Rules for Designing Improved User Interfaces; Dejima Opens University and Releases Natural Language Development Tools". Business Wire. 2000-09-08. Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  9. Riolo, Worzel; Bill, Jason H.; Kotanchek, Mark, eds. (2015). Genetic Programming Theory and Practice XII. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation. Springer International Publishing. p. 179. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-16030-6. ISBN 978-3-319-16029-0. S2CID 52805863. Retrieved 2017-12-15 – via Google Books.
  10. Sharon Machlis (2002-08-26). "New Human/Computer Interfaces". Computerworld. Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  11. Hodjat, Babak; Amamiya, Makoto (2001). "Natural Interaction Using the Adaptive Agent-Oriented Software Architecture (AAOSA)". In Smith, Michael J.; Koubek, Richard John; Salvendy, Gavriel; Harris, Don (eds.). Usability Evaluation and Interface Design: Cognitive Engineering, Intelligent Agents, and Virtual Reality. Vol. 1. CRC Press. pp. 405–420. ISBN 978-0-8058-3607-3. Retrieved 2017-12-14 – via Google Books.
  12. Noah Shachtman (2003-07-23). "Pentagon Wants to Make a New PAL". WIRED. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  13. "The bosses' PAL". The Engineer. 2003-07-25. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  14. "Sybase Acquires Dejima". EContent. 2004-04-23. Archived from the original on 2017-10-08. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  15. Rick Whiting (2004-04-21). "Sybase Continues Mobile-Computing Buying Spree". InformationWeek. Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  16. "Sybase Expands into Telematics and Embedded Devices". Speech Technology. 2007-05-29. Archived from the original on 2016-08-22. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  17. "iLoop Mobile Acquires Competitor MobileVerbs". Rushprnews.com. 2010-02-20. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  18. Danielle Newnham (2015-08-21). "The Story Behind Siri". Medium. Archived from the original on 2016-01-06. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  19. Deborah Gage (2014-11-24). "Artificial Intelligence Company Sentient Emerges From Stealth". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2014-11-24. Retrieved 2017-12-15.(subscription required)
  20. Richard Waters (2015-01-04). "Investor rush to artificial intelligence is real deal". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-15.(subscription required)
  21. Tom Simonite (2015-06-01). "AI Supercomputer Built by Tapping Data Warehouses for Their Idle Computing Power". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  22. Foxman, Simone; Clark, Jack (2015-07-14). "This Hedge Fund Is Seeking an Artificial Intelligence Edge". Bloomberg Technology. Archived from the original on 2015-07-18. Retrieved 2017-12-18.(subscription required)
  23. Adam Satariano (2017-02-06). "Silicon Valley Hedge Fund Takes On Wall Street With AI Trader". Bloomberg Technology. Archived from the original on 2017-02-06. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  24. "Hedge funds embrace machine learning—up to a point". The Economist. 2017-12-09. Archived from the original on 2017-12-14. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  25. "Advisory Board". X Prize Foundation. Archived from the original on 2016-11-22. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  26. "2017 ISAL Awards: Winners". alife.org. 2017-09-16. Archived from the original on 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  27. Nish Acharya (2017-07-08). "America Needs More Technically Skilled Workers. The U.S. House Just Did Its Part". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-07-09. Retrieved 2017-12-14. Babak Hodjat, co-founder and chief scientist of Sentient Technologies Inc., with 21 patents to his name, has spent nearly a decade—largely in secret—training an artificial intelligence system that can scour billions of pieces of data, spot trends, adapt as it learns and make money trading stocks
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