Anonymization AI from Germany: Brighter AI has been sold
Brighter AI anonymizes faces in real time. Now it is not Apple, but surveillance software developer Milestone that has taken over the Berlin-based AI.
Brighter AI's software anonymizes faces and license plates.
(Image: Brighter AI)
The German AI company Brighter AI has been acquired. The Danish software developer Milestone Systems took over the start-up on April 1, 2025, as Milestone announced on Monday afternoon. Neither company disclosed the acquisition price.
Brighter AI develops software that is designed to make faces in video recordings unrecognizable or replace them with other faces and thus anonymize them. The technology is to be used in the automotive industry, for example, to use cameras in cars in road traffic in compliance with data protection regulations.
The start-up currently has 24 employees and is based in Berlin. Brighter AI will continue to operate as an independent business unit within Milestone. Brighter AI's product was also one of the demos presented to Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing at the opening of an AI center in Berlin at the beginning of the year.
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Apple was also interested
There were initial reports of a takeover a year ago. At the time, Apple was said to have been interested in Brighter AI. "We were a very European company right from the start," says Brighter AI founder Marian Gläser. Europe was the first region with data protection regulations such as the GDPR. "Staying in Europe was super important for our work."
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According to Milestone CEO Thomas Jensen, the company wants to position itself well "in the area of responsible video surveillance". "But the scope for privacy-enhancing technologies goes far beyond video surveillance, and we want to make sure we capitalize on that opportunity" by acquiring experts such as Brighter AI. Milestone Systems itself, which specializes in video surveillance, has been part of the Canon Group since 2014.
Milestone is working together with Nvidia on "Project Hafnia" to make the origin of videos used as training data more traceable. Brighter AI technology is to become part of this. Generative models in particular, such as Runway or Sora from OpenAI, are repeatedly criticized because they train with copyrighted material without permission.
(dzi)
