Enter a new UAP database player - Enigma Labs LLC

This year there has been a surge in the number of companies which have launched UAP databases. These include PhenomAInon; UPDB; and Enigma Labs.

PhenomAInon

On 7 May 2022, a new website called PhenomAInon, was launched by OtoAI Limited Liability Company. Papers to create this new LLC, were filed on 28 May 2021, filing number 2021-001008746, showing its home address as Sheridan, Wyoming. Its registered agent was an entity called Cloud Peak Law LLC. The home page of the website states:

"PhenomAInon is the world's first Cloud native Data and AI platform for phenomenon based data analysis. We are building a connected framework and Open Source Phenomenon Platform (OSPP) to provide data ingestion, data and AI analysis, and insights pipeline for research, collaboration, and community."

In a blog post dated 8 May 2022, I noted that the various individual databases that appear on the PhenomAInon website, were remarkably similar to those created by Jacques Vallee, in his CAPELLA data warehouse, perpared by him, on behalf of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) for the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP.) Later, many of the BAASS related individual databases were withdrawn from the PhenomAInon site, although no reason was ever given for this latter action.

In attempting to determine how these DIA AAWSAP BAASS generated databases came to be made publicly available I noted that in the book "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon" by James T. Lacatski et al, there is the following quote:

"The authors are aware that the AAWSAP BAASS Date Warehouse, rather than lying fallow in a dusty warehouse or on a discarded hard drive, has been recently reactivated and is currently in use in various locations related to the government study of UAPs."

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jschurman/

Who is behind the PhenomAInon database? That would be Joe Schurman. Schurman gave a presentation titled "AI and UAPs" at the 2021 AI Expo, which provided an excellent outline of the platform which he has established for his UAP work. In the video of the presentation, Schurman mentions his liaison with such individuals as Chris Mellow, Lue Elizondo, and others in the Defense industry whom he cannot mention.

Update: 21 February 2023

An article recently appeared describing the work of PhenomAInon and giving an update on it. 

UPDB

The second database which appeared shortly after PhenomAInon, was UPDB.  As with the PhenomAInon databases, many of the individual databases in UPDB were remarkably similar to the CAPELLA data warehouse. The website states that:

"UPDB is a meta-database of reports & documents about unexplained phenomena. data previously stored away in disparate documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, and long-dead websites can now be viewed together in a unified date & location format. Publius' philosophy is that new insights can be revealed with a higher level analysis of this decades-long body of work."

Who was behind the creation of UPDB? Twitter user, @uapublius owns up to this on their Twitter account, whilst remaining anonymous. 

Enigma Labs LLC

The latest entry into the field of UAP databases, is an entity named Enigma Labs LLC, about which an article appeared on bloomberg.com dated 12 July 2022, authored by Roxane Tiron and Mia McCarthy. A check of corporations registered with the State Secretary of Delaware found Enigma Labs LLC was registered 1 December 2020, file number 4272722. The registered agent was Corporation Service Company, 251 Little Falls Drive, Wilmington, county of New Castle, state of Delaware. 

The Enigma Labs website states:

* "Welcome to the first data and community platform dedicated to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)"

* "Enigma is the largest queryable, scored  UAP database in the world. We've run machine learning on over 400k civilian and military reports, collating media and sensor data, and deconflicting sightings with identifiable variables..."

Enigma Labs is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/EnigmaLabs2  A March 2 2022 tweet about the company, advertised itself as "...the first well-resourced team of technologists to build a dedicated data, community and research platform for UAP/UFOs. Our founding group is made up of engineers, investigative journalists, data scientists and physicists." Although on Twitter since November 2020, the first tweet on 2 March 2022 announced the launch of Engima Labs. The tweet had a link to an Enigma blog. 

Who is behind Enigma labs? The Bloomberg article revealed that the founder was a woman named Alex Smith. A search on the Internet was undertaken, for additional information about Alex Smith, which fitted the profile information given in the media articles, Enigma Labs's blog and website, etc. No information could be found. What if the name Alex Smith was a pseudonym? But then, how to find out the identity of the real individual behind that name? 

Alex Smith's LinkedIn page states that Alex Smith was the founder of Enigma Labs in November 2020. So, various keyword searches  were performed on a number of Internet platforms. One of these searches was via Twitter's advanced search tools, to look for anyone on Twitter who would fit the profile described in the media articles etc. working backwards in time from 1 December 2020. It needed to be someone who'd expressed an interest in UFOs (there were many); wasn't one of the dozens of recognizable UAP Twitter usernames; and fitted the time frame of around November 2020. Out of all these searches, there was one hit. The potential candidate for "Alex Smith" tweeted the following on 15 October 2020 from Twitter account @alice_LG

"...humans need to take a break from bullshit and pay attention to the overwhelming evidence of _UFOs_

go watch @PhenomenonMovie - top of itunes chart. 70 years of credible global sightings, senators, astronauts testimony."

@alice_LG is an individual named Alice Lloyd George.

"Alex Smith" - an American female, based in New York City, who has experience in Internet startup companies; and an interest in aerospace/space, data science, and UFOs, which started around November 2020.

Alice Lloyd George - an American female, based in New York City, who has extensive experience in Internet start up companies; with an interest in frontier tech; science, space. Who, on 15 October 2020, tweeted "...humans need to take a break from bullshit and pay attention to the overwhelming evidence of _UFOs_"

 For more detailed information on Alice Lloyd George check out her LinkedIn page, her Twitter account; and article here.

In conclusion

Given that three players in the field of UAP databases have emerged in a short time; there is reason to believe that others may also enter the same arena in the future. 

Update: 18 October 2022

Enigma Labs advised that it had launched a knowledge library.  The library may be accessed here.    I noticed that there is also a "Submit sightings" link. 

Update: 18 November 2022

In a 14 November 2022 Enigma Labs blog post, it was announced that former Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich was joining Enigma Labs as "an advisor." Dietrich later tweeted that this was correct, but that she was not on the Enigma Labs payroll.

Update: 18 January 2023

An excellent piece about Enigma Labs and PhenomAInon appaeared on the blog, Punk rock and UFOs, dated 18 January 2023. 

Update: 19 January 2023

Journalist Bryan Bender, in a piece in POLITICO's Morning Defense Newsletter, dated 18 January 2023, reported that NASA was holding a UAP summit this week. The two-day meeting, is to commence Thursday 19 January 2023 and representatives will attend from the Pentagon, the FAA, and other USG agencies. Harvard physicist Avi Loeb will be in attendance.

The piece stated "Also participating will be Enigma Labs, the start-up that is applying machine learning to UFO data. 'We are in partnership with Enigma Labs, doing a technical evaluation of their data and crowdsourcing capabilities,' a senior Pentagon official told Bryan."

Update 2: 19 January 2023

In a tweet dated 19 January 2023, US researcher Ben Hansen advised: "I'm excited to announce that I've partnered with @enigmalabs to help centralise & streamline UAP reports. Apps & other tools are being developed to assist researchers in data mining. Here's a summary of what's coming up and where you can file reports." 

In a separate tweet, also dated 19 January 2023, Hansen said "Due to the overwhelming numbers of UFO reports to our database, we've redirected all UFO/UAP reports to @enigmalabs where we still review every report but it's much more organized. If you have a report (doesn't matter how old it is) use this link." 

Update3: 19 January 2023

In another tweet dated 19 January 2023 Journalist Bryan Bender tweeted:

"AARO is partnering with Enigma Labs to evaluate their application, data stream, and filtering capabilities to determine the utility of this open source data to augment its collection efforts, focused on national security areas only," Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough tells me.

Update 4: 22 January 2023

Upon checking the Twitter account for Enigma Labs I found that back on 23 December 2022, Enigma Labs tweeted: "We are @BenHansen00's official #UAP sightings reporting center. Watch now to learn more."

Update 5: 22 January 2023

At a Pentagon press briefing, on 18 January 2023, there was the following interaction between an unnamed journalist and the Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary:

 "Q: Thank you. And then this is sort of a two in one. Politico reported that Pentagon officials and officials from other agencies are attending an even hosted by NASA right now, I think, this week on their ongoing UAP investigations.

And they reported that DOD's AARO office has partnered with Enigma Labs, a start-up that uses machine learning to make sense of UFO data. And so can you tell us who from the Pentagon is attending that NASA event, and what does DOD aim to get out of this new partnership with Enigma labs?

MS. SINGH: I would have to take that question. I'm sorry. I don't - I don't have the answers for you on that one. So I'll take that and get back to you."

Update: 21 February 2023

A number of articles recently appeared in a number of Internet sources, reporting on the new Enigma UAP app, e.g. click here. 

Update: 13 August 2023

A new book authored by Dr. Jensine Andresen reveals details of pre-seed funding of Enigma Labs. Details on crunchbase.com shows that on 21 April 2022 funding was provided by FJ Labs, and Kirsten Bartok Touw.  Information on FJ Labs may be found here.  Information on Touw here. 

Update: 23 August 2023

A blog item on Enigma's website speaks to their use of cellphone technology. 

Update: 15 December 2023

Enigma has now received and processed over 12,000 sighting reports, according to an article on their own blog.

Update: 24 January 2023

The New Yorker Magazine carried an account of a recent interview with the CEO of Enigma Labs.