Cohere to acquire AI cybersecurity startup Aisle

Canadian artificial intelligence laboratory Cohere has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire Aisle, a cybersecurity startup founded by former Avast CEO Ondřej Vlček. While Aisle is headquartered in San Francisco, it maintains a significant research and development center in Prague, which will become a Cohere office following the transaction.

Aisle utilizes autonomous AI systems to scan source code, identify software vulnerabilities, verify their existence, and suggest fixes. The technology aims to reduce the time required to patch vulnerabilities from weeks or months to mere hours or minutes. In its first year, the system reportedly identified over 500 new bugs, including 12 vulnerabilities in OpenSSL.

The acquisition is intended to bolster Cohere’s cybersecurity capabilities through a new division called Cohere Cyber. Leadership from Aisle will join the new division, with Ondřej Vlček serving as senior vice president, Jaya Baloo as global security lead, and Stanislav Fort as vice president of AI system security research. The move aligns with Cohere’s strategy to integrate security directly into the training and creation of language models.