Paul Chang, Global President of Brand Engagement Network, Inc., or BEN, & Carl DeMaio, California State Representative, were recently guests on Benzinga's All-Access.
BEN is a provider of conversational AI technology and human-like AI avatars. The company delivers highly personalized AI engagement with a focus on industries where there may be a large workforce gap and an opportunity to transform how consumers engage with networks, providers and brands.
The company is a key advisor of Representative DeMaio's bill, the "Stop Foreign Governments from Accessing Californians' Sensitive Personal Data Act."
BEN is a provider of conversational AI technology and human-like AI avatars. The company delivers highly personalized AI engagement with a focus on industries where there may be a large workforce gap and an opportunity to transform how consumers engage with networks, providers and brands.
The company is a key advisor of Representative DeMaio's bill, the "Stop Foreign Governments from Accessing Californians' Sensitive Personal Data Act."
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hey Snickers and welcome to all access. I've got two fantastic guests for you today. It's Paul
00:04Chang, the co-CEO of Brand Engagement Network that has that ticker as BNAI and California State
00:10Representative Carl DeMaio. They are joining me for an exclusive talk today. All Access starts right now.
00:16And it is my pleasure to welcome you to the co-CEO of Brand Engagement Network,
00:29Paul Chang and California State Representative Carl DeMaio. It is wonderful to be with you both
00:34today. Thanks for having me. Well let me start with you Representative DeMaio and I want to ask
00:40you about what the Stop Foreign Governments from Accessing Californians Sensitive Personal Data Act
00:45is all about. What kind of problems does it address? Sure, well we've seen the intrusion
00:52by the Chinese government into all sorts of data, privacy, technology platforms and it really does
01:03present a national security threat. It also presents an economic competitiveness threat
01:09to the United States and Congress seems to be dithering and dragging its feet.
01:15California has always been a leader in setting technology standards in many respects. We have
01:20our one of the strongest privacy statutes on the books of any state and that has drawn a lot of
01:27other states to basically harmonize their approach and technology companies have basically put
01:34national standards out. So I figure if Congress isn't going to act, California certainly should
01:39and that's why Assembly Bill 364, that's the number, would ban any foreign government
01:46from having servers with personal sensitive information. So you can't in the United States
01:52offer a technology platform, an app, if the data will be stored on a server controlled by
02:01a foreign government either directly or indirectly through their influence or ownership of a company
02:07but also for any private server data storage, if it's a private company, that company would
02:15still have to disclose to a consumer that hey your data could be stored on a private server
02:21in a foreign country. Not only the disclosure has to be made but an annual permission has to
02:26be received from the consumer. I think that this is so important. I'm a big believer in the free
02:32market. Technology has amazing potential to transform our lives for the better but consumers
02:38deserve a right to know. As you mentioned, completely important. I lived in California
02:43for a long time, Representative DeMaio, so I know you guys are on the forefront of a lot of this
02:47stuff. So great stuff there. Paul, let me bring you in. Can you give us an overview of Brand
02:51Engagement Network and tell us about your advisory role working with Assemblyman Carl DeMaio?
02:56Yeah, sure. So Ben is a pure play gen AI company that has built safe, intelligent, and scalable
03:05AI agents for various industries. And as Assemblyman DeMaio has mentioned, we've also been
03:14leading the charge in terms of developing safe and secure technology so that the user can
03:24derive the benefit from the technology without the risk of data leakage. So we've been advising
03:32Assemblyman DeMaio on various different ways to provide gen AI technology that is safe,
03:39that's designed to protect the consumer data and privacy while providing helpful agents for
03:46while providing helpful agents for businesses. So the challenge here at the moment with gen AI is
03:55most people think there's only one way to do things and that's how some of the larger,
04:00sort of large language model companies are approaching it. We've actually been approaching
04:06it a different way in a more private, secure way for several years. And that's the role that we
04:13play in helping to endure. It's obviously very important work as we talked about. And Paul,
04:18let's talk about how does brand engagement deal with data security and data sovereignty
04:23while still providing the best product possible?
04:28Sure. So I think that maybe the easiest way to describe it is our design is a closed loop
04:34platform, which means that the user data and inputs are not leaked into the internet,
04:41which can become searchable and perhaps even training material by other AI systems. So as
04:48you can imagine, we keep everything within the environment that's been set up for the business
04:54that we're supporting. We also allow the business to have full control over the data, right? And
05:01that is how we attain HIPAA and SOC 2 compliance. And as you know, providing personal healthcare,
05:09especially healthcare information is super critical. And we knew that in order for our
05:15solution to be adopted by the industry, that is something that we had to pass. And we've done that
05:22over a year ago. We also provide the most accurate and relevant responses by only referencing
05:30customer curated data instead of searching on the internet and making probabilistic guests,
05:37right? So we know that the correct answer and responses, we know where they are and we know
05:43where to get them because they sit in our database within the U.S. borders in a secure environment.
05:52Representative Devano, to bring you back in, when you look at big tech and the challenges
05:55they're facing when it comes to data protection and privacy, what do you see those as right now?
06:01Well, again, China is the biggest threat. And for the life of me, I cannot understand why the U.S.
06:08Congress is not acting and taking this more seriously. When we have a deep-seek leapfrog in
06:14many respects, our AI platforms, it becomes an economic competitiveness question. And so we also
06:24know that if they are offering all of these products in the United States, mining personal
06:30information certainly could be one of their motivations. That's why we have to have for
06:37consumers disclosure and permission. And for the most sensitive information, we have to have a
06:44prohibition. And that's why my bill not only does the disclaimer upfront to consumers when there's
06:49a private server located in a foreign country that might have their information, but for government
06:55servers, government-influenced or controlled companies, and a lot of those companies are in
07:01China, let's not be kidding ourselves, China, the Chinese government controls a lot of those
07:07companies, that we would have a prohibition. No sensitive healthcare, financial, or geolocation
07:14data would be allowed on those servers. If China, I mean, obviously China, the Chinese government is
07:19going to oppose this bill, and they probably have economic players in the United States
07:24that are profiting from their partnership and their relationship with them, that will probably
07:30oppose the bill. But again, my approach is never to pick winners or losers. My approach is to try
07:35to establish some protections and then see how the market can respond. This is long overdue.
07:42Congress does not seem to be willing to pass any sort of common sense legislation.
07:46And the longer we drag this out, the more risks that there will be to the U.S. consumer.
07:51Beautifully said, for sure. Paul, we'll go back to you and talk to you about
07:54your multimodal AI technology and why it's competitive. And help us understand how your
07:58text, voice, and vision capabilities create better customer experiences than what's on the market right now.
08:04Sure. So, you know, we all know that humans learn and retain more when they're using
08:09multimodal modes of communication. And as you can see here, in our interaction, you know, we can see
08:16each other, we could, you know, respond to each other by, you know, talking and seeing and looking
08:25at reactions. Well, our AI system is built exactly the same way. So, the interaction,
08:32will mimic what we're experiencing here today. So, obviously, we're here to help consumers
08:40learn and retain more information. However, we're also breaking new frontier in terms of how we
08:48design and deploy the system so that it's scalable. So, you know, as you've heard, there are lots of
08:53challenges with the current large language model-based AI systems because of the
08:59number of GPUs that's required to do the training. And then, you know, obviously, having to build
09:05new data centers to house these servers. And some people even talk about building new power plants
09:12to actually, you know, provide electricity for those data centers. Well, what we've done is we
09:17built a much, much smaller footprint AI system. One that could be deployed almost anywhere in the
09:26world. And perhaps even just run on GPUs instead of needing to use the, I mean, run on CPUs instead
09:36of just needing to run on GPUs. So, which makes it much more accessible, affordable, and scalable
09:45for most enterprises out there. Representative D'Amato, I'll bring you back in. Once again,
09:50a lot of respect for what you're doing with Bill AB-364. Very important stuff. And as we know,
09:55we're living in fascinating times right now. What do you think the near future of AI in the
09:59United States looks like from a legislative perspective? Well, there's a lot of fear and
10:05ignorance surrounding it. The politicians don't seem to get it. And more often than not,
10:14some of the bills that I'm looking at would kill AI and the wonderful positive potential that it
10:20presents. A lot of my Democrat counterparts, all they see is a world of risk and they all want to
10:29regulate it and control it. That's not the nature of this wonderful breakthrough. Now, there are
10:35some issues that we have to address. And I think the foreign data sovereignty issues are forefront
10:43there. Consumer right to know, consumer permission. Let the market inform the consumer, let the
10:51consumer decide, protect some of the national security issues, but don't overly regulate this
10:58transformational tool. My fear is that we're going to have too much regulation. And that's why what
11:04I'm trying to do is focus the debate on the areas where I think we can have thoughtful, common sense
11:10protocols and protections put into place. Again, we're not picking winners and losers, but we are
11:16putting together some rules of the road as we continue to look at the wonderful evolution of
11:23AI and other technology platforms. Absolutely. It is a great time to be alive as well, but we
11:27gotta obviously take care of a lot of stuff as well. It was an absolute pleasure talking with
11:31you both today. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Pleasure and
11:36honor of mine. That was the co-CEO of Brand Engagement Network, Paul Chang. The NASDAQ
11:40ticker is BNAI. And California State Representative, Carl DeBaio.