Reflections on Innovation: 101 AI and Software Patents Granted

As a scientist and a leader of scientists, I know the thing that excites us the most is invention, and learning. Seeing our learnings translated into algorithms and techniques that get expressed in software, and operationalized at customer organizations, is a daily dream come true. Reaching the professional milestone of having 101 software patents granted is a personal pinnacle, too, and one I am proud to have achieved with my data science team at FICO.

So how did I get here?

Growing up in Maine and working through my postgraduate education at Duke University in the 1990s, I was fascinated by Bell Labs, the legendary R&D subsidiary of AT&T. The original Bell Labs was a collaborative environment that brought together scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, all working in an environment designed to encourage serendipitous encounters between experts. Bell Labs scientists invented the first transistors, cellular communication networks, the UNIX operating system and C programming language, and so much more.

Intrigued by physics throughout high school, college, and graduate school, I wanted more than anything to work at an organization like Bell Labs.

From New Mexico to San Diego

But, by the time I earned my Ph.D. degree in Computational and Theoretical Physics in 1998, the Bell Labs of old was not attainable. (It is now a subsidiary of Nokia.) My education journey took me to Los Alamos National Labs, where I was awarded a prestigious Director’s Postgraduate Fellowship. Los Alamos is the country’s premier pioneer of computational physics and AI technologies, national security innovation, and plutonium research – working to extend Oppenheimer's legacy.

While it was a privilege to work with the talented staff scientists and contribute at Los Alamos, I quickly realized I wanted to apply my talent in a way that would more directly benefit people and make their lives better.

When I joined HNC Software, a company that set the stage for San Diego’s vibrant data science and analytics scene, I knew I was home. HNC brought together incredibly smart people who worked collaboratively – exploring concepts, prototypes, and designs, and deploying innovation in an impactful way that is incredibly fulfilling for scientists. HNC data scientists pioneered the most successful and widespread applications of neural networks for fraud detection, and were experts in operationalizing AI in the 1990s! FICO acquired HNC Software in 2002, establishing a San Diego office that today remains the heart of our software data science operation.

Building a Culture of Customer-focused Innovation

I have worked hard to preserve the joy of learning while running FICO’s tremendously talented research organization. We are all constantly learning, pushing, inventing, and working through the hard details necessary to take ideas from academic discourse to a solution, software technique, or product. Equally important, we are driven to operationalize innovation for demonstrable business benefit and positive customer impact, just as I had envisioned while at Los Alamos.

In doing so, FICO’s data science team is intensely focused on solving customer problems like payment fraud, how to deploy AI responsibly, how to expand use of real-time transaction analytics, and how organizations can fundamentally improve the way they make decisions. We’re constantly looking at business problems that don’t have a solution or need a better one.

This hyper-focus on very real problems, and the trust that customers have in FICO as an innovation leader, fuels our company’s patent machine; patents are the ultimate expression of how a concept and idea can transform into technology that is proven, workable, and deployable. We want to show our customers where we’re headed and get their feedback, and one of the best ways to communicate that is through patents. With a patent in place, we can confidently commit the associated innovation onto a software roadmap and deliver it to clients.

Fortunately, the many executives and leaders I’ve worked with during my 25 years at FICO have taken great pride in the innovation our data science team delivers. Today FICO is a recognized as a premier analytic software company in the “Golden Age of AI.”

My Journey to Responsible AI and Beyond

Over my time at HNC and FICO, I have authored nearly 150 patent applications with 101 patents now formally granted, 42 in review pending grant status, and many more in formation with my data science team. My research focus on machine learning algorithms, and AI for specific domains – payment fraud, scams, credit risk, telco solutions, real-time transaction analytics, and blockchain, among many others – has established the basis for how FICO now drives the enterprise operationalization of AI, with FICO Platform.

As the market has moved to complex AI models, FICO has steadfastly held that novel solutions – specifically, intellectual property deployed and operationalized – require us to deeply understand the technology, be able to explain it to customers, and be confident that it works responsibly. 

This principle has propelled FICO into Responsible GenAI as we continue to differentiate ourselves by driving responsibility in the traditional AI domain. Here, we are industry leaders in interpretable neural networks, transaction analytics, and AI blockchains. With Responsible GenAI, we are inventing new types of algorithms that deliver the same types of benefits as deep networks and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, through constructs like interpretable neural networks or, more recently, focused language models (FLMs) that are accompanied by GenAI trust scores.

Today, FICO’s organizational wide support for Responsible AI keeps us focused  on solving business problems in ways that benefit people, rather than inadvertently harming them. As customer organizations became more proficient with new Responsible AI technologies, we are building not just the best AI and GenAI for FICO Platform, but also providing industry leadership on how AI can be robust, explainable, ethical, and auditable – responsible!

My Most Important Measure of Success

For any data scientist, having the latitude to invent and create solutions that are operationalized and deployed is super important. Building a data science organization that prizes creativity is what makes me happiest. Every single day we’re learning from each other, keeping customers at the forefront.

To me, attracting and retaining a phenomenal data science team at FICO’s very own “Bell Labs” is the accomplishment I find most rewarding. My joy in looking over the list of 101 granted patents is having had the opportunity to work with 65 different co-inventors. This list is long, but the top three co-inventors are Shafi Rahman, Matt Kennel and Joe Murray. All of us continue to work side by side on AI innovation development, exploring new frontiers to keep FICO at the forefront of AI-powered software solutions.

How FICO Can Help You with Responsible AI

• Learn more at FICO® Responsible AI
• Download our AI Playbook: A Step-by-Step Guide for Achieving Responsible AI