We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth Rudden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Beth, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In October 2022, just a month before ChatGPT took the tech world by storm, I launched Bast AI. Named after the Egyptian Cat goddess (Bastet – a fierce protectress), Bast AI was born out of a need to demonstrate that there is a practical alternative to unquestioningly trusting black-box AI. Before AI access became widespread, I traveled the globe, educating people not just on what explainable and trustworthy AI could look like but often starting with the basics of what AI was.

My journey began 20 years ago at IBM, where I worked on building reporting systems and navigating complex information systems. I observed a consistent challenge: people often needed help articulating their needs effectively, and everyone used different jargon or language. My academic background in Classics and Anthropology provided a unique perspective, combining human-centered insights with profound linguistic knowledge of other languages’ origins. Understanding human reality through language fueled my passion for using ontologies and formal graph models to ground data in contextual understanding and relevance.

Bast AI’s mission is to tackle the challenges faced by those new to operationalizing AI, providing clarity and precision in a field rife with complexity. Our approach equips users with the knowledge to understand AI’s decisions, fostering trust and empowerment. In a crowded field, Bast AI stands out as a pioneer in making AI accessible and trustworthy. As we grow, I am thrilled to continue reshaping how people interact with technology, knowing that this is just the beginning of an extraordinary journey.

Beth, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For those who may not have heard of me before, my journey into the AI industry is deeply rooted in my background in anthropology, specifically archaeology, an applied social science that combines statistical and semantic analysis to understand how artifacts relate to various cultures of the past. This field taught me to apply art, music, and cultural knowledge to artifacts, creating stories about why they existed at a particular time and stratum. This approach informed my conceptual model for Bast AI. I see data as an artifact of human experience generated directly by humans or through systems they designed. This perspective forms the building block for information, knowledge, and wisdom. I developed a model that challenges the existing paradigm of generative AI, which often removes data from its context using transformer or deep learning black-box models. Instead, Bast AI emphasizes using data in situ—within its context—to understand and interpret information. We have created the field of ontological NLU – or natural language understanding, which enables a far better prediction than black box models.

At Bast AI, we offer an AI Engine as a product, allowing clients to install and use it on their own hardware or cloud premises. Our mission is to empower users to understand AI’s workings against their own data and enable them to create personalized AI solutions. Our product features a fully versioned data pipeline and persistent layer, ensuring transparency and traceability by providing answers to which version of what source and model was used by the AI. With our four API hooks—Analysis, Chat, Search, and Method—organizations can develop custom AI applications tailored to their data sources. This approach represents a significant shift from traditional AI models that rely heavily on large, often opaque datasets.

Our commitment to understanding data within its context sets Bast AI apart, allowing users to build AI without the need for vast computational resources or data volumes. I am incredibly proud of this innovative approach, as it democratizes AI development, making it accessible to a broader audience. Our method ensures that AI is not a mysterious black box but a transparent tool that users can confidently deploy. I want potential clients and followers to know that we prioritize clarity, trust, and empowerment at Bast AI, providing the tools needed to harness AI’s potential powerfully and understandably.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Starting my company, Bast AI, was a significant milestone in my life, one that I embarked upon when my children were older—my eldest graduating high school and my youngest navigating middle school. Balancing my role as a proud wife and mother to a U.S. Army soldier with my professional aspirations required resilience forged over years of personal and professional challenges. My career began as a programmer during the dot-com era and culminated in a seven-year tenure at IBM as a global technical executive. Throughout, I prioritized my family, especially during my spouse’s over 20 years of service as a pilot, including three deployments that kept us apart for six years. During those times, I was effectively a single mom and an ambitious engineer, all while living with the constant fear of my spouse being in a war zone as a medevac pilot. The terror of knowing he was in harm’s way, risking his life to save others, is something I am still coming to terms with.

These deployments forced me to learn a vital lesson in resilience: the practice of asking for help. Embracing this vulnerability taught me that resilience is not just about enduring challenges alone but also about building a support system. This experience taught me resilience in ways that nothing else could. I often joke that nothing in business can rattle me because I have survived circumstances I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Yet, amidst these challenges, my greatest achievement has been maintaining a loving and supportive home for our children, who continue to surprise and delight us every day. My spouse and I have built a solid foundation that underscores our belief that we can overcome any obstacle together. This deep-seated resilience, cultivated through years of balancing family and career amidst uncertainty, is the backbone of my journey and fuels my commitment to Bast AI. It reminds me that no matter the challenges, we can achieve remarkable things when united.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

In my journey from growing up at IBM to choosing the path of a distinguished engineer and technical executive, I have a deep appreciation for the distinction between leadership and management. Becoming a technical executive at IBM required rigorous scrutiny from other distinguished engineers, fellows, and senior business leaders, who served as mentors, coaches, and evaluators of my work. They assessed not only my technical contributions, such as projects, patents, and papers but also the business value I could generate. This experience underscored the importance of connecting one’s contributions to the broader business ecosystem—a powerful motivational tool that fosters a sense of belonging and purpose. When team members understand how their work contributes to the company’s success, they feel valued and are more engaged. When a client is willing to pay for your ideas – this is when you know your ideas and work are valuable. This is the healthy exchange of goods and services for money that drives our economies.

Throughout my career, I have learned that motivating a team requires fostering leadership qualities within each member. All we ever need to succeed is the belief that we can, and empowering people to “do the thing” feels incredible. As an executive and manager, I emphasize the importance of employees seeing themselves as leaders who contribute to the whole. This involves nurturing a sense of belonging and providing them the agency to understand and build these connections for themselves and others. I often describe my goal as creating a “leaderful” organization where everyone comprehends how their contributions are essential and valued. By empowering team members with this understanding, we maintain high morale and encourage proactive engagement, ensuring that everyone knows they are an integral part of our mutual success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bast.ai/home
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ibethrudden
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brudden/
• Twitter: https://x.com/ibethrudden
• Other: https://linktr.ee/bethrudden

Image Credits

The Cat Etruscan mirror is a co-creation with midjourney AI
Bast Cat breaking chains with the Proxima logo is the designed work of Adam Starcaster – a captain of Bast AI

All other photos are taken by me personally