Databricks, the co -founder of confusion
Andy Koninski, the computer world and co -founder of Databricks and Perplexity, announced on Monday that his company, Laude, is a new institute of research, Amnesty International, backed by $ 100 million of his own money.
Lod Institute Less than artificial intelligence research laboratory and more like a box that looks to make investments organized similar to grants. In addition to Konwinski, the Institute’s Board of Directors includes Professor UC Berkelegian Dave Patterson (known as a series of award -winning research), Jeff Dean (known as the Gogle Senior Scholars), and Joel Pineau (Meta’s Ai Research).
Konwinski has announced the first and “leading” institute grant, which is 3 million dollars annually for five years, and will establish the new artificial intelligence systems laboratory at the University of California in Berkeley. This is a new laboratory led by one of the famous Berkeley, Ion Stoya, the current director of the Sky Computing Lab Laboratory. Stoica is also a co -founder of Startup Anyscale (AI and Python) and Databricks Ai Big Data Company, both of whom were developed in the Berkeley Laboratory system.
The new artificial intelligence systems laboratory is to be opened in 2027, in addition to Stoica, which will include a number of other well -known researchers.
He has Blog post When announcing the institute, Konwinski described its mission as “built by researchers in computer science … We are present to stimulate the work that not only pushes the field forward, but rather guides it towards more useful results.”
This is not necessarily a direct excavation in Openai, which started as an Amnesty International research facility, and now, it can be said that it is consumed by its huge trade side. But other researchers fell prey to the temptation of money as well.
For example, the era of the famous artificial intelligence researcher Controversy When it revealed that Openai supported the creation of one of the AI standards that was then used to reveal the new O3 model. Epoch founder has also launched a newly controversial task company Replace all human workers everywhere with artificial intelligence factors.
Like other artificial intelligence research organizations with commercial ambitions, Konwinski has organized its cross -border institute: as a non -profit organization with an operating company of public benefits.
He divides his research investments into two signs he calls “Slingshots and Moonshots”. Slingshots is dedicated to research in the early stage that can benefit from grants and practical assistance. Moonshots, as the name suggests, for “long horizon laboratories that address challenges at the level of species such as artificial intelligence for scientific discovery, civil discourse, health care, and the reformulation of the workforce.”
His laboratory, for example, collaborated with the “Peripheral Station Engine”, a Stanford standard on how AI agents deal with tasks, It is used by humans.
One thing should be noticed, Konwinski’s efforts under the name “Laude” are not just a grant for giving research research. It is too Participated in the establishment of an adventure box for profit It was launched in 2024. The co -founder of the Fund Nea VC Pete Sonsini tells us and tells us a spokesperson for Laude that she has more than 50 prominent researchers at LPS in the box. As mentioned previously, TECRUNCH, Laude has led $ 12 million in Ai Agent Proctructure Startup Arcade. You have calmly supported other startups.
A Laude spokesman tells us that although Konwinski has pledged $ 100 million, he is looking for investment from other successful technicians. Regarding how Konwinski raised a wealth enough to ensure $ 100 million for this new endeavor: Databricks closed 15.3 billion dollars The financing round in January, which is estimated at $ 62 billion. Confusion last month is guaranteed Evaluation of 14 billion dollars, too.
Does the world really need another search for artificial intelligence “good for humanity” or a mysterious non -profit/commercial structure? No, yes.
It has become artificial intelligence research Increasing. For example, artificial intelligence standards are designed to demonstrate that a specific seller model works better these days. (Even Salesforce It has its LLM standard for CRMS))
An alliance that includes the likes of Konwinski, Dean and Stoica support really independent research that can one day turn into an independent and independent trade of man, can be an attractive alternative.
Note: This story has been updated to reflect more joint details about the Laude VC box.
