Saint John-based Versos AI has announced a partnership with Tape Ark to convert large volumes of video stored on physical tape into structured datasets for artificial intelligence systems.

Founded in 2023 by serial entrepreneur Chris Keevill, Versos AI has developed its platform to help the owners of video content licence their libraries out to AI model trainers and hyperscalers. The goal is to produce a massive library of ethically sourced video that can be used to train AI models.

The companies said the initiative focuses on unlocking legacy tape archives, which remain a significant but largely inaccessible source of video data. While AI developers increasingly rely on video to train advanced models, much historical footage is stored on aging media formats that require specialized hardware and manual cataloging.

Under the agreement, Australia-based Tape Ark will digitize analog and legacy tape-based video and migrate it to cloud storage. Versos AI will then process the digitized material using its software to structure, tag, and index the content, making it searchable and suitable for AI training.

Keevill – who raised a $1.85 million seed round late last year – said video is becoming central to the next generation of AI systems and that large volumes of such data remain offline. He said the partnership is intended to create a direct pipeline to convert archived footage into usable training material.

Tape Ark chief executive Guy Holmes said organizations currently spend between $0.40 and $1.20 per tape per month on storage, often amounting to millions of dollars annually for content that is rarely accessed. He said digitization reduces storage costs significantly while enabling new uses, including licensing data for AI applications.

Tape Ark has processed more than one exabyte (one quintillion, or 10 to the power of 18, bytes) of data globally, including over 200 petabytes of video, which the company estimates is equivalent to about 29 million hours of 4K footage. The partnership is positioned as a way to extend that capability by integrating AI-driven data structuring.

The companies said the process will allow content owners – including broadcasters, studios, sports leagues, and enterprises—to identify and use material that may not have been viewed for years. Once processed, the video can be analyzed at scale, with automated tagging of objects, scenes, people, and events.

The announcement comes as AI developers seek new sources of training data beyond publicly available internet content. Industry demand for large-scale video datasets has increased alongside the development of more complex AI models.

Versos AI and Tape Ark said their combined offering will enable organizations to convert archival storage costs into potential revenue streams by licensing processed video data. The companies described the partnership as establishing a new pipeline connecting offline media archives to the AI data market.