Ineffable Intelligence Raises $1.1 Billion to Create Superlearner Without Human Data

David Silver, a former DeepMind researcher, has founded a new AI lab called Ineffable Intelligence, which has raised $1.1 billion to create a superlearner that can discover knowledge and skills without relying on human data.

AI Lab Aims to Create 'Superlearner' Without Human Data

Ineffable Intelligence aims to create a "superlearner" capable of discovering knowledge and skills without relying on human data by leveraging reinforcement learning, a technique in which AI systems learn through trial and error rather than studying human-generated examples. This is an area of expertise for Silver, who was until recently leading the reinforcement learning team at Google-owned DeepMind, where he spent more than a decade before leaving to found this new venture.

According to its newly launched site, Ineffable Intelligence hopes that its superlearner will discover all knowledge from its own experience, similar to how Silver's previous programs, such as AlphaZero, beat professional players at chess and the board game Go by learning purely from experience, without being fed human strategies or game records.

Ineffable Intelligence's Ambitious Goals

Ineffable Intelligence's superlearner may lack experience, but the company doesn't lack ambition. According to its site, "If successful, this will represent a scientific breakthrough of comparable magnitude to Darwin: where his law explained all Life, our law will explain and build all Intelligence." Silver has also stated that any money he makes from Ineffable will go to high-impact charities that save as many lives as possible.

The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, and others. Among those other investors are the British Business Bank and Sovereign AI, the U.K.'s recently launched sovereign venture fund for AI.

Ineffable Intelligence Joins the Club of AI Ventures

Ineffable Intelligence joins the club of AI ventures founded by star researchers whose names have attracted seed rounds so large they have been nicknamed coconut rounds. Just last month, AMI Labs, co-founded by Turing Award winner and former Meta AI scientist Yann LeCun, raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation.

There might be more companies in this mold. Recursive Superintelligence, co-founded by DeepMind's former principal scientist Tim Rocktäschel and incorporated in the U.K., reportedly raised $500 million, with enough demand to stretch that amount to $1 billion.

London as an AI Hub

Ineffable Intelligence's funding round suggests mounting momentum around London as an AI hub. This is partly thanks to DeepMind's continued presence after its acquisition by Google in 2014. But it is not just DeepMind. Jeff Bezos' AI lab, Project Prometheus, is reportedly in talks to secure office space close to Google's AI hub.

This also translates into a powerful network of alumni, with several former DeepMind staffers reportedly set to join Ineffable's executive team.