About us
The Transparency Coalition is a non-profit organization committed to helping initiate legislation around Artificial Intelligence, specifically around the training data it uses to generate information. We are a non-partisan, action-oriented organization with a voice for an otherwise overwhelmed general public, and a general demand for AI safety.
In lockstep with ethical AI, the Transparency Coalition does not accept funding that compromises our organizational independence. That is non-negotiable. This includes creating any financial relationships that may influence our priorities, policy positions, advocacy efforts, regions of focus, or direct action work.
founders
Rob ELEVELD
Rob hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan. After college, he spent 5 years on active duty as a submarine officer in the United States Navy, serving aboard the fast attack submarine USS Batfish. Across a 25-year career in tech software and data companies, Rob is a 4-time CEO of early-to-mid stage companies in software and data beginning in 2000 with Vykor Inc., which he co-founded and led. Over the past 10 years at Whitepages Inc., he served in executive roles and eventually became CEO in 2016. Rob led the spinoff of the enterprise unit, rebranded Ekata Inc. in 2019, which Mastercard acquired in 2021. Rob has a BA in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College and an MBA as well as an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Jai jaisimha
Jai is a Seattle-based technology entrepreneur with expertise in AI enabled product development and data science. Jai has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus on AI/Image Processing/Information Retrieval from the University of Washington. Over a nearly 30 year career, Jai has founded or held leadership roles at four start-ups that leveraged AI/Machine Learning to build software applications. He was CTO at Hitch Works Inc., acquired by Service Now in 2022, which deployed AI/Large Language Models (LLMs) to help employees and their employers take a skills-based approach to work and career progression. Jai was also CEO and Founder at Appnique which developed privacy preserving advertising technology solutions using AI/LLMs. At Microsoft, AOL and RealNetworks, Jai led pioneering initiatives in the digital distribution of music and video content that also ensured that user privacy was respected and the rights of creators and copyright holders were protected. He has also worked for Medio and Amazon.
TCAI IN THE NEWS
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Geekwire podcast: TCAI Founders talk training data
The co-founders of the Transparency Coalition, veteran startup founders and technology leaders Rob Eleveld and Jai Jaisimha, join the GeekWire Podcast to discuss their reasons for starting the organization, and their goals to help shape emerging legislation and public policy in this area. Read more and listen to the interview on GeekWire.
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A call for ai data transparency
University of Washington ECE alumnus and Affiliate Professor Jai Jaisimha (Ph.D. ‘96) has co-founded a new nonprofit organization, the Transparency Coalition.ai, which is advocating for transparency and regulation of the data used to train artificial intelligence. Read more about Jaismha’s research, entrepreneurial career, and AI policy work in this profile published by the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
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Meet the Transparency coalition
The Transparency Coalition.ai is a different kind of startup. Founders Jai Jaisimha and Rob Eleveld were so frustrated with the lack of regulation around AI training data, they started a nonprofit to raise awareness and drive legislation before we make the same mistakes we did with allowing Social Media to hide behind Section 230. Read more on Cal McAllister’s Medium blog.
