Artificial Intelligence platform Sentient raises $85 million in a seed round, led by the Founders Fund.
In a significant move for the AI industry, Sentient, an open-source AI startup co-founded by Polygon's chief business officer, Sandeep Nailwal, has raised $85 million in a seed round. The fundraising round was co-led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Framework Ventures, and Pantera Capital.
Other notable participants in the round include Ethereal Ventures, Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Delphi Ventures, Hack VC, Arrington Capital, HashKey Capital, Canonical Crypto, and Foresight Ventures. Joey Krug, partner at Founders Fund, commented on Sentient's role in addressing the incentive problem of open-source AI.
Sentient is building open-source AI models with the aim to compete with Sam Altman's OpenAI. Unlike OpenAI, Sentient allows the community to contribute to the model itself. This approach is key to addressing concerns about the centralization, safety, and ethics of AI, as Sentient sees community-built AI models as a solution.
Nailwal is joined by two university professors, Pramod Viswanath from Princeton University and Himanshu Tyagi from the Indian Institute of Science, in the development of Sentient. The startup plans to hire 10 people to join its research and engineering teams.
Sentient's open-source AI models are designed to address the capital-intensive and costly nature of AI development. To achieve its goal, Sentient plans to launch in testnet in Q3 2024, with the capital raise playing a crucial role in the process.
In addition to co-ownership of AI models and future rewards, Sentient plans to launch "Campaigns" for contributors. These campaigns aim to foster a collaborative and engaged community, furthering the development of open-source AI models.
With the successful fundraising round and the talent behind Sentient, the startup is poised to make a significant impact in the AI industry, potentially challenging the dominance of established players like OpenAI.
