Sacramento-based education technology startup Praxis AI has been selected for the inaugural AWS Education Accelerator, put on by Amazon’s internet service division Amazon Web Services.
Praxis is a January 2023 startup that uses generative artificial intelligence to support and mentor researchers and students with ideas and sources for papers and research projects.
“It leads you to sources, but it doesn’t write it for you,” said Brian Boyd, a founder and head of customer support with the company.
Amazon Web Services has hosted accelerators for several technology industries over the years, but this is the first time for the AWS Education Accelerator.
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Web Services received 1,500 applications for the accelerator, and it picked 15 startups working on technology solutions for education.
“That we got selected is a huge validation of what we are doing,” Boyd said.
One company in London was selected and six of the companies are in California. Praxis is the only company in the Sacramento region chosen for the accelerator.
Each of the companies in the accelerator program will receive up to $100,000 in AWS computing credits, AWS said.
Praxis AI CEO David Clarke spent part of last week at Amazon in Seattle “drinking information through a firehose” during the first week of the 10-week accelerator, Boyd said.
Rather than pulling information from random sources, Praxis AI accesses verified and trusted sources to make it more useful for academic research, he said.
Praxis AI can use multiple large language models, including, GPT-4, Claude and Stable Diffusion.
As an example of what it does, Praxis AI’s mentor, called Pria 2.0, allows a user to ask for, say, 10 ideas for topics for a research paper. Pria will then offer suggestions, and the user can ask Pria to dive deeper into one of those ideas with cited sources of research.
“It will lead you to the information, but it won’t write the paper,” he said.
The platform is in use in pilots at some high schools and at 80 universities, but the only one the company can name is Clemson University. The company makes money by charging for access to Pria searches, which is either paid by the student or the school.
Praxis AI has six employees and another 25 people working on the team. The company works virtually, with employees in Sacramento, Oakland, Pleasanton, Livermore and South Carolina. Praxis AI has some revenue from users, which it doesn't disclose, Boyd said. The company has not taken any outside investment.
The AWS Education Accelerator program includes workshops, curated curriculum, business mentoring and technical guidance, AWS said. The participants also get insights from Amazon teams as well as networking opportunities with potential investors and customers. In addition to the 10-week program, the companies get ongoing advisory support for a year. They will also be featured in a technology showcase.
The Praxis AI mentor, Pria, used artificial intelligence to create the image of Pria that is used on the platform. Users don't have to use Pria, however. They can customize the platform to their school's image or create their own, Boyd said.
