Vinay Malkani has been named President & CEO of Figure Eight Federal, a subsidiary of Appen. Moving forward, he will lead the company as it pivots to a more product and partner driven approach.
“Vinay has enjoyed incredible success with Figure Eight over the last six years as our Chief of Engineering. He is a natural leader and the outstanding choice as we seek to build trust with the public sector and lead the AI transition within the U.S. government,” said Appen CEO, Ryan Kolln.
“I’m excited to lead Figure Eight Federal as we expand in the federal market to serve our warfighters by accelerating our Nation’s strategic data & AI advantage,” said Malkani. “With our technology and solutions, we unlock a government guided approach to AI training data enabling enhanced discovery of vulnerabilities, bias, and ultimately ensuring the development of ethical and effective AI across the defense and intelligence sector. Our north star will be ensuring that AI technologies remain ‘of the people, for the people, by the people.”
Mr. Malkani is a computer technologist with 20+ years of industry experience. In addition to working as a technology leader at various large companies, he has founded, advised, and managed startups in a variety of stages, from initial conception all the way through to acquisition and IPO. He assumes the role of CEO from that of Figure Eight Federal’s Chief of Engineering, where he has overseen the development of multi-sensor data and AI scaffolding solutions for the defense and intelligence sector.
Before joining Figure Eight Federal, Malkani served as Mayfield Robotics’ head of cloud engineering, where he oversaw the architecture, design, security, implementation, and operation of Mayfield’s cloud strategy. Mayfield worked on pushing the forefront of technology in the field of home robotics and won several CES awards.
Figure Eight Federal is a wholly owned FOCI mitigated subsidiary of Appen focused on the defense and intelligence sector. Appen is the world’s leader of AI training data in the commercial sector. Appen’s technology has been pivotal in driving some of the most revolutionary AI advancements over the past decade supporting a number of the leading Fortune 100 companies.
As AI is increasingly embedded within government processes and capabilities, Figure Eight Federal will build its business on a solid foundation of public sector work characterized by engineering excellence, human-centered AI architecture, and a culture of transparency and explainability. “Warfighters and analysts must be empowered to serve people, support allies, and outperform our advisories,” added Malkani. “High-quality, trusted AI is critical to make sense of vast amounts of multi-sensor data at the speed of war. Trusted AI starts with trusted training data that is mission ready which is our key focus. We’re proud to be a partner in this incredible AI revolution.”
About Figure Eight Federal
Figure Eight Federal (F8F) provides accurate and reliable human annotated datasets that fuel AI and machine learning for some of the world’s biggest brands. With more than 25 years of industry knowledge, F8F’s technology powers many of the AI interactions we experience every day. Our solutions and expertise empower our clients to achieve their AI goals and make a significant impact in their industry.