DeepMind Alum David Silver Raises $1.1B for AI That Learns Without Human Data

Ineffable Intelligence, an AI lab based in the UK and established by David Silver, who previously worked at DeepMind, has successfully secured $1.1 billion, bringing its valuation to $5.1 billion. The goal of the company is to create a 'superlearner' utilizing reinforcement learning, a method that Silver developed during his time at DeepMind. He spent over ten years leading the reinforcement learning team and was instrumental in the creation of AlphaZero, which excelled in chess and Go without relying on human strategies. The envisioned superlearner aims to learn purely from its experiences, and Silver believes this could revolutionize science in a way akin to Darwin's evolution theory. Any profits generated will be directed to impactful charities. The funding round was spearheaded by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with additional investments from Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, the British Business Bank, and Sovereign AI, the UK's venture fund for AI. This trend of significant funding for AI startups led by prominent researchers is being referred to as 'coconut rounds.' Other notable recent funding includes AMI Labs by Yann LeCun, which raised $1.03 billion, and Recursive Superintelligence by Tim Rocktäschel, securing up to $1 billion. These events highlight London's emergence as an AI hub, further enhanced by DeepMind's influence and a network of former employees, many of whom are reportedly joining Ineffable's leadership team.