A London-based blockchain AI startup has raised a huge 拢34 million Series A round of funding.
Gensyn, founded in 2020 by Ben Fielding and Harry Grieve, is building a decentralised deep learning and machine learning compute network that allows deep and machine learning models to be trained with scale and efficiency.
It said the boom in artificial intelligence – led by the emergence of ChatGPT and rival models – has powered demand for GPUs, the compute processors that enable such systems to absorb information.
The network connects GPUs and provides their owners with a financial return for running deep learning training tasks submitted by users. Using a blockchain network, Gensyn has created a way to trustlessly verify that the deep learning tasks have been performed correctly, triggering payments via a token.聽
鈥淎rtificial intelligence is laying a foundation for the next industrial revolution, and the realisation of its potential requires huge computational power,鈥� said Fielding.
鈥淲e believe the key to useful, aligned AI is allowing everyone in the world to contribute to its development. The best way to mitigate bias and misalignment is to allow more people to build models that reflect their views. In order to do that we need open infrastructure that connects models to the core resources, crucially computational hardware, that make them function.鈥�
a16z Crypto led the round, alongside CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Eden Block, Maven 11 and various angel investors.
Gensyn raised 拢5m in seed funding last year and a smaller pre-seed round in 2021.