An open-source development platform specializing in artificial intelligence (AI), Sentient, has successfully raised $85 million in a seed funding round, with leading contributions from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Framework Ventures. The announcement on July 2 highlighted that these funds would be directed towards expanding their engineering team and advancing Sentient’s open AI platform. The company, positioned as an AI research entity, aims to empower AI developers to capitalize on their open-source models and data, akin to established ecosystems like the Super Intelligence Alliance.
In a statement, the company expressed concerns about the current state of the AI landscape, drawing parallels to the closed-source software dominance of 1995. While open-source AI development exists, Sentient noted that it often lacks adequate incentives for developers, preventing them from being active stakeholders. The core team behind Sentient comprises Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of Polygon; Pramod Viswanath, a renowned Princeton professor and co-inventor of the technology underpinning the 4G wireless standard; and Himanshu Tyagi, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science.
Sentient emphasized that its underlying blockchain protocol and incentive structure would foster economic alignment among developers, facilitating the progression of open artificial general intelligence. Joey Krug, a partner at Founders Fund, highlighted the significance of Sentient’s mission to address the existing incentive challenges that dissuade open-source AI adoption, noting that Sentient’s testnet is scheduled for release in the current quarter of 2024.
Various other entities, including Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Dao5, Delphi, Primitive Ventures, Nomad, Hack VC, Arrington Capital, Hypersphere, IDG, Topology, Protagonist, Folius, Sky9, Canonical Crypto, Dispersion Capital, Mirana, Foresight, HashKey, Spartan, and more, participated in backing the seed round.
In the realm of decentralized AI, 2024 has witnessed a surge in startups amalgamating blockchain and AI technologies. Ora, one such protocol, secured $20 million in funding from Polychain, HF0, and Hashkey Capital in June. The protocol is developing a platform for tokenizing AI models through its initial model offering, based on an ERC-20 token. This mechanism will grant token holders ownership rights and revenue-sharing opportunities from AI model utilization.
Venture capital investments in blockchain startups have experienced notable growth in recent months, with Galaxy Research reporting that investors injected $2.49 billion across 603 deals in the first quarter of 2024. This represented a 29% increase in funding and a 68% surge in deal count from the preceding quarter.
Finally, an insightful read titled “Polygon never set out to beat Ethereum” by Anurag Arjun showcases Polygon’s distinct journey and position in the crypto landscape.