CMS advises tech firm Xayn on development of AI-powered secure search engine

Munich – Berlin-based AI company Xayn launched its privacy-protecting search engine in December. This search alternative enables users to find information securely on the web. The new app safeguards their digital privacy, provides control over the algorithms and delivers personalised search results in a transparent manner.

A CMS team comprising Dr Markus Häuser and Dr Markus Kaulartz advised Xayn on all legal aspects of developing the app. The instruction focused on assessing the use of AI and its compliance with data privacy from a legal perspective. The search engine is based on federated learning, which breaks new ground both from a technical and a legal viewpoint. Instead of moving the data to the algorithms, as in conventional methods, the algorithms are brought to the data. The algorithms are trained directly on users’ devices and then aggregated in encrypted form. The two CMS lawyers have been advising Xayn on the legal side of developing the necessary AI since 2018.

Berlin-based Xayn was established by Dr Leif-Nissen Lundbæk, Professor Michael Huth and Felix Hahmann in 2017 on the basis of a research project at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London. The AI company developed the open-source framework XayNet for federated learning and analytics, on which the Xayn search engine is also based. Xayn aims to become a competitive alternative to established search engines by combining privacy protection, transparency and user-friendliness with decentralised AI. A desktop version is being developed and will be released in the coming months.

CMS Germany

Dr Markus Häuser, Partner
Dr Markus Kaulartz, Counsel, both TMC

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