Japeto and the story so far…
Established in 2014, Japeto is a software development business, specialising in AI-powered chatbots.
Based at Arise Innovation Hub, Harlow, Japeto is a team of six problem-solvers, building bespoke website, web apps and chatbots. They are on a mission to help clients connect better digitally, and readily available, even in higher risk scenarios.
The innovation
Japeto are experienced chatbot developers. In 2018, they created Pat, a sexual health chatbot for the HIV charity Positive East and subsequently NHS trusts have adopted it (for example, on South West London Sexual Health).
The success of Pat has demonstrated the demand for better AI tools in healthcare. However, the risk of poor application remains real. AI adoption in healthcare has challenges including the lack of transparency of AI models, dependency on single providers, regulatory risks, and the clinical risk of AI returning incorrect or inconsistent results. Language AIs such as generative AI chatbots run the risk of hallucinations, which can be dangerous in a healthcare setting.
The Japeto team are working on tools which solve some of these barriers to AI chat adoption in healthcare and wellbeing. Their chatbot platform uses AI-based natural language understanding to work out the user’s intent and matching that to a scripted response which can be written and vetted by clinical experts. This eliminates the risk of hallucinations producing misleading or incorrect responses. They are building safeguarding tools to detect when users may need to refer to humans for critical conversations, along with data protection tools such as automated detection and redaction of Personally Identifiable Information to secure healthcare data.
Behind the scenes, Japeto chatbots use an innovative natural language processing system. This connects to existing AI language tools – including OpenAI, AWS Lex, and NLU engines Japeto has developed in-house – and can “fail over” to a different AI service, depending on their availability.
Experience has demonstrated that large language models are superior at recognising the intent of a chatbot visitor including extrapolating poor spelling, different phrasing, dialects, and cultural nuances. However, their AI platform currently integrates only one LLM: OpenAI.
The ISG supported the necessary research and development with the use of language tools to evidence the best models to incorporate into future healthcare chat technology, including open-source models which can be run on Japeto’s own servers
The journey
In 2023, Japeto was awarded an Innovate UK Smart Grant to create better and safter AI chats tools for healthcare and charities. The Innovate UK Smart Grant, part of UK Research and Innovation supports game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovations that can significantly impact the UK economy.
This was a monumental step forward for the company and since then, Japeto has also been awarded the Innovation Support Grant (ISG) through the Arise Beyond Open Innovation for Value and Entrepreneurship (ABOVE), a collaborative programme delivered in partnership with Medilink Midlands and Arise Innovation Hubs, part of Anglia Ruskin University, funded by Essex County Council. The programme provided innovation support grants as well as sector specific events around the themes of health, performance and well-being. This allowed Japeto to advance the development of the innovative AI tool.
The project, funded through the ISG, is to establish the viability of additional large language models in healthcare chatbot applications, and to establish whether any particular language models perform better.
Japeto is evaluating the models by comparing the results from processing historical data sent to an existing healthcare chatbot.
This project aims to enhance accuracy and reduce risk in our Natural Language Understanding system, which is a critical factor in the success of our chatbot platform. If the project is successful, Japeto will be hiring more local staff, including software developers and administrative roles.
Japeto currently has a beta test programme where they offer its chatbot platform for free to charities and NGOs, and their outreach for this programme is local (e.g., Harlow Citizen’s Advice Bureau). Japeto believes that by supporting local charities’ success they can help them to grow.
The impact
Japeto has successfully built a server, nicknamed “Blue Fairy”, which can run open source LLMs. Using open source, locally hosted products remove the dependency on third party APIs such as OpenAI and guarantees that no data is processed off-site.
Evidence has been collected to make the decision about the best large language models to use, and a methodology to continuously evaluate new models and incremental improvements over time. This evidence is also a useful assurance to demonstrate that its new chat product, based on LLMs, has increased accuracy over our older products, which will help assist future adoption of new products within its NHS chatbots.
Having in-house capabilities also means Japeto can build AI solutions for organisations that have highly sensitive data that they don’t want to send to the cloud. With Blue Fairy resources, the team were able to quickly prototype and demo a new AI product for their client.
The client can take highly sensitive commercial data and generate answers to complex tenders and proposals. Japeto’ s technology means that it manages the hallucination risk, therefore getting accurate results. This means massive time savings to the team.
Japeto will be scaling up this so it can be sold as a product – and the ISG grant through Medilink Midlands and Arise Innovation Hubs was the first critical step.
Medilink Midlands’ role
Japeto are members of the Arise Innovation Hub in Harlow. A benefit of the membership is being updated with news about programmes like Arise Beyond Open Innovation for Value and Entrepreneurship (ABOVE) through newsletters and announcements. When the team heard about the grant, it seemed natural to apply.
There was an introductory briefing Zoom webinar that helped clarify all the requirements, leaving Japeto with a clear idea how to move ahead.
The bigger picture
AI is here and it’s affecting the MedTech landscape. Having clear data about the best large language models to use for our MedTech products helps improve the current standards for AI.
Every time large language models come out, it’s common for them to be benchmarked – but it’s hard to know how that translates to our real products. By running what is essentially its own benchmarking exercise Japeto can confidently make decisions that deliver the best available solution for its clients.
Japeto believes that this effort of going the extra mile is what makes Japeto stand out for AI assistants and chatbots for healthcare.