SAS acquires software that generates fake data. How it could help the Triangle company.

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To help build its new artificial data generator, the Cary analytics company SAS Institute announced Tuesday it acquired core software from the London-based synthetic data provider Hazy.

SAS says this purchase, which is for Hazy’s “principal software assets” and not the entire company, will augment SAS Data Maker, an enterprise platform the company introduced in April and hopes to begin previewing next year.

A dozen employees will join SAS through the deal, which the company completed for an undisclosed amount. “It’s so critical for customers in so many different industries to have the right level of data access and data quality,” SAS’s senior director for product marketing Alice McClure said in an interview with The News & Observer. Synthetic data is artificial information that reflects the statistical authenticity of actual data. Its advantages can include privacy, supply and costs. The data is not tethered to real people, mitigating risks of exposing sensitive personal material. And with the rise of generative artificial intelligence, McClure said more SAS consumers seek vast sets of data to train AI models.

This data may be bought, but it can be more affordable and efficient to create it. In a statement Tuesday, SAS’s chief technology officer Bryan Harris cited a research paper that found 75% of businesses by 2026 will use generative AI to produce fake, representative data sets to better understand their clientele. “With synthetic data, customers can innovate and research more deeply, accessing data that was previously out of reach due to availability, access or quality issues,” Harris said. Synthetic data is also valuable when organizations want to examine rare occurrences which lack significant natural statistics. SAS is one of the largest and oldest software companies in the Triangle.

James Goodnight co-founded SAS in 1976 and continues to lead it as CEO today. In a statement, Goodnight called the London software firm “a pioneer in bringing synthetic data to market as a viable enterprise product.” Hazy’s software is one of around 25 acquisitions SAS has made in its 48-year history, the company said Tuesday.

Original Article Source: News & Observer