Since dramatically quitting Google last year, Geoffrey Hinton, better known as the “Godfather of AI,” has been a harbinger of doom for how the emerging technology could impact humanity.
But more than a year later, the former Googler and AI naysayer is again betting on the technology’s ability to transform the world for the better.
Cambridge-founded CuspAI has emerged from the stealth world with a $30 million seed funding round.
The company will help users design next-generation building materials through deep learning and molecular simulation, streamlining design. In a major coup, it has won the endorsement of Hinton, a prominent AI skeptic.
Hinton has agreed to serve as an advisor on CuspAI’s board. His statement at the announcement was rightly contradictory, thanks to the group’s use of a technology that defined Hinton’s life and career.
“Humanity will face many challenges in the next decade. Some will be caused by AI, while others can be solved by AI,” Hinton said.
“I am very impressed with CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the design process of new materials using AI to curb one of humanity’s most pressing challenges: climate change.”
CuspAI emerges from stealth
CuspAI plans to use search engine-style functionality to identify the properties needed for new building materials on demand, thus facilitating their discovery.
“Imagine a search engine not just for existing materials, but for all potential molecules and materials that could be created,” says Professor Max Welling, co-founder and Chief AI Officer at CuspAI.
The co-founders hope that CuspAI can gradually help offset an emerging problem arising from the rapid adoption of AI – its unaffordable carbon emissions.
As co-founder and CEO Dr. Chad Edwards outlines, CuspAI wants its technology to contribute to the world’s growing carbon capture and storage capabilities.
“The AI revolution itself is creating new challenges, including rapidly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions from data centers,” said Edwards.
“Our technology can help mitigate this impact by designing materials that efficiently capture carbon dioxide.”
Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann Le Cun, said the tech giant planned to collaborate with CuspAI to accelerate the discovery of new materials for carbon capture.
CuspAI’s $30 million round was led by Hoxton Ventures and had “significant participation” from Basis Set Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
In 2022, Hoxton raised a $215 million fund to back European startups. It has shape to support successful European growth companies such as Deliveroo and Darktrace.
CuspAI’s capital raise is the latest significant investment in AI by a venture capital group in the past 18 months, as investors scramble to ride the wave of tomorrow’s growth leaders.
The godfather returns
Hinton, 76, left his role at Google in May last year with an exclusive interview for the New York Timesin which he appeared to lament his life’s work while warning of the future dangers of AI to humanity.
Since then, Hinton’s appearances in the press have only made him double down on this view.
In an interview with 60 minutes Last October, he suggested that rogue AI would learn to manipulate its users by learning the works of Machiavelli and other “political connivances.”
He is also concerned about the impact of AI on the labor market, he tells the BBC News night in May that he thought a universal basic income would be needed to address the replacement of many “everyday jobs.”
Now, however, it appears Hinton sees promise in CuspAI’s use of the technology to at least combat climate change, even as he meditates on the technology’s other existential threats.