It’s time for a Meet the Member piece and this time it’s one of our Incubator members!

Meet Jonathan O’Brien the founder of Obrioxia. You’ll often see Jonathan around at Canopy, happy to chat to other members about all the latest developments in AI – in fact he recently hosted a talk all about helping entrepreneurs set up AI Agents. 

Right, let’s learn more about him and his startup….

Hey Jonathan, what does your startup Obrioxia do?

My startup is basically a black box for AI. So imagine an AI makes an important decision, a high risk decision, or an AI hallucinates — this is an accountability layer for that. You’ve got observability, which is a big thing, but there isn’t really an accountability layer to mathematically prove what’s been done. It’s capturing a sequence of events of what the AI is doing, run on the side of its own internal system, and putting it into a big jumble of code mixed together and put into the chain. If anything’s altered in that chain, it breaks the mathematical chain, which is what makes it auditable and forensic.

Can you give us a real world example of how this would work?

I can see it being implemented in high risk AI decisions, in the fintech and insurance industry first. That’s a real big one, some really big compliance problems that they’re having. AI is an emerging technology, it’s being used rapidly and it’s making more and more high risk decisions, and a lot of these decisions are being contested.

A real good use case would be something like facial recognition cameras in shops — someone gets banned from a shop but they’ve never even walked in there before. Obrioxia would be proving exactly why that AI agent made that decision. Was the ban applicable? Right now, the answer is just ‘that’s what the AI agent said.’ If this software was incorporated, you could show exactly why you’ve been banned, because we have the snapshot of that decision.

Where did this idea come from?

I was in Devon with my mum on holiday when I first started having this idea. All my direction was, how can I get involved in making AI safer? And through deep research, this is the problem I found. From that point on, I was all in.

What stage are you at?

So where I am at the minute is I do have an MVP, I’ve got a demo, I spent a lot of time building my product, and now I’m going to market and trying to find my first use cases, trying to reach out to fintech insurers, trying to get maybe a board member, maybe even a co-founder, so I can really start taking it off the ground. I feel like I took it as far as I can take it on my own, and now is time to bring other people in to get further and make some money.

What do you need help with right now?

I need a community. I need someone that can push me, tell me where I’m going wrong, help me see things that I’m not seeing. I need direction in a world I’m trying to navigate. I need use cases, people that can help me get pilots. I need board members. I probably need a co-founder eventually to be taken seriously by VC investors. There’s a journey still to go. As hard as the build was, I think this side of it is definitely way harder… I’m excited for the future and what I can bring.

What help can you offer other founders?

I think firstly without bringing my own products into it, just by helping them utilise AI tools that they’re probably not aware of. I keep pretty up to date with what’s coming out, and there’s been a matter of times where I’ve mentioned certain apps and tools to people that have never heard of them, that could be so beneficial for them. So yeah, if you’ve got any issues or things you’re struggling with and you want AI to help, come and ask me and I’ll be able to point you in a direction and find some tools to help you get there.

Why did you join Leicester Startups, and the Incubator?

I wanted to join because it’s a local community — I’m based in Leicester, and the office is really good for that. But the community is really great too. They’ve got a great reputation, and some great past founders who’ve been through the incubator that are doing very well. I go to a lot of meetings and events and I’m forever bumping into people from the Leicester Startups community. Sam’s got great connections, so has Ben. It’s a really good place to be, and I feel like it’s going to help me grow organically into the person I’m trying to become. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in Leicester I would have gone, if I’m honest

 

Website: obrioxia.com
LinkedIn: Jonathan O’Brien

 

If, like Jonathan, you’re a founder that would benefit from a supportive community, consider joining the Leicester Startups Incubator. Benefits include 24-hour access to a city centre co-working space, in-person one-to-ones with experienced entrepreneurs, exclusive workshops and much more. Find out more here.