Arthur aims to offer businesses an AI firewall

Arthur, a New York-based startup, is introducing a set of tools it says should allow more companies to safely gain the benefits of ChatGPT-like services.

Why it matters: The risk of information leaking — whether beyond a company's walls or across organizational boundaries — has emerged as a key obstacle to business use of generative AI.

How it works: Arthur's tools analyze the prompts being used and the responses being generated to make sure the information being sent and returned doesn't expose personal or confidential information.

• It can also flag other issues, including potentially toxic information and when there is a high likelihood that the AI is "hallucinating" (making up answers).
• Arthur can also stop problematic queries, such as those that attempt to elicit inappropriate information or seek to evade a company's safety protections.

"Think of it as a firewall for large language models," co-founder and CEO Adam Wenchel told Axios.

By the numbers: Arthur has around 50 employees and raised more than $60 million in funding.

• Customers include Humana and the Defense Department.