Protopia AI Secures $1.25M Contract with U.S. Air Force for Secure AI Development

Protopia AI has received a $1.25 million Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate its Stained Glass Transform (SGT) technology. Announced in a press release, this contract aims to enable secure use of proprietary code with AI developer tools within the Air Force Sustainment Center Software Directorate (AFSC/SW).

The SGT technology will allow the AFSC/SW to protect code from prompts used for inference with coding large language models (LLMs). This initiative will facilitate secure interaction with AI and developer tools without exposing codebases in plain text, thereby enhancing productivity and security for software development teams across the Air Force.

Protopia AI's collaboration with the Air Force highlights the critical need for dual-use technologies that ensure secure and cost-efficient adoption of generative AI in mission-critical environments. The contract was awarded through the AFRL/AFWERX SBIR program, which encourages small businesses to engage in federal research and development with potential for commercialization.