James Stewart (BScDA’97, MCS’99, PhD’17) and start-up company TrojAI are on a mission to protect artificial intelligence (AI) from malicious hackers.
The three-time UNB alumnus’ company is the leading AI and machine learning risk management and security platform for enterprises protecting the AI market. It is also one of fewer than 10 companies worldwide working in this space.
Stewart has been recognized as one of the top 20 technology leaders in the country.
TrojAI was selected by CB Insights as a Global Top 100 AI Company, completed seed raise at the end of 2021 for a total of $4M to date and is on track for Series A mid-2023.
“It’s meaningful work,” said Stewart. “Artificial intelligence is being used across all industries and it’s actually hackable. It’s not widely known because it’s a very technical area and the innovations coming out as a result of AI are reorganizing our world every day.”
Throughout his computer science career, which has spanned more than 20 years, Stewart has worked as a cybersecurity entrepreneur, in software development, and as a crime analyst with the police force. Stewart said his education has been invaluable and many aspects of his career are owed to the technical background acquired at UNB.
Stewart said he has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and hopes today’s computer science graduates will go out and build something of their own too.
“That’s how we’re going to grow the tech industry locally, by folks going out there and creating their own jobs,” said Stewart. “With these skills you can build anything and you don’t have to settle.”
