Image Source: Deepmind
According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Inflection AI, the new artificial intelligence start-up from Mustafa Suleyman of DeepMind and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, has raised $225 million in funding.
The money, which was initially reported by TechCrunch, was raised at an undisclosed valuation, and the investors are still unknown. A significant portion of the funds will almost certainly be utilized to hire AI professionals with big wages. A request for comment from CNBC was not immediately responded to.
The business, which was launched earlier this year, aims to create artificial intelligence software that would make it easier for humans to communicate with computers.
“If you think about the history of computing, we’ve always tried to simplify our ideas in order to express them to a computer,” Suleyman told CNBC at the time of the March launch. “Even when preparing a search query, we simplify, reduce, or write in shorthand so the search engine understands what we want.”
To manage a computer, users must either learn a programming language or use a mouse to travel and interact with objects on the screen, he noted. “All of these are ways we simplify our thoughts and lessen their complexity, as well as their creativity and individuality,” Suleyman explained.
According to the British entrepreneur, Inflection will work on a new set of technologies that will eventually allow everyone to talk plainly to a machine. The final items’ appearance, cost, and target audience are all unknown at this time.
Suleyman, Hoffman, and former DeepMind researcher Karén Simonyan were the only team members mentioned when the business was established. Others, on the other hand, have recently joined in.
Heinrich Kuttler left his position as research engineering manager at Meta AI in London in March to join Inflection’s founding team, where he will concentrate on the technical side of the company, according to his LinkedIn page. Joe Fenton, meanwhile, departed his position as senior product manager at Google in February to focus on product development.
According to LinkedIn, two former Google Brain researchers, Maarten Bosma and Rewon Child, have recently joined the ranks.
Greylock Ventures, where Suleyman and Hoffman are partners, is helping to “incubate” Inflection. Greylock told CNBC in March that it is investing in Inflection, but would not disclose the amount.
Inflection is one of a slew of new AI start-ups devoted to assisting machines in comprehending human language. Adept and Cohere are two more that have lately been established by industry leaders.
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