Since his dramatic exit from Google last year, Jeffrey Hinton, better known as the “Godfather of AI,” has been a doomsday harbinger of how emerging technologies can affect humanity.
But more than a year later, the former Google employee and AI skeptic is back to betting on the technology’s ability to transform the world for the better.
Cambridge-based company CuspAI has emerged from stealth with a $30 million seed round.
The company will help users design next-generation building materials through deep learning and molecular simulation, streamlining design. In a major coup, it won the endorsement of Hinton, a prominent AI skeptic.
Hinton has agreed to serve as an advisor to CuspAI’s board. His statement accompanying the announcement was suitably controversial, thanks to the band’s use of technology that has defined Hinton’s life and career.
“Mankind will face many challenges in the coming decade. Some will be caused by AI, while others can be solved by AI,” Hinton said.
“I was very impressed with CuspAI and its mission to accelerate the process of designing new materials using AI to limit one of humanity’s most pressing challenges – climate change.”
CuspAI comes out of stealth
CuspAI plans to use search engine-style functionalities to identify the properties needed for new building materials on demand, aiding their discovery.
“Imagine a search engine not just for existing materials, but for all the potential molecules and materials that could be created,” said Professor Max Welling, co-founder and Chief AI Officer at CuspAI.
The co-founders hope that in the process, CuspAI can help offset an emerging malady of AI’s rapid entry – its prohibitive levels of carbon emissions.
As co-founder and CEO Dr. Chad Edwards emphasizes, CuspAI wants its technology to contribute to the world’s growing carbon capture and storage capabilities.
“The AI revolution itself creates new challenges, including rapidly increasing energy consumption and carbon emissions from data centers,” Edwards said.
“Our technology can help mitigate this impact by designing materials that effectively capture carbon dioxide.”
Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann Le Cun, said the tech giant plans to partner with CuspAI to accelerate the discovery of new carbon capture materials.
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 support European startups. It is in shape to support successful European growth companies such as Deliveroo and Darktrace.
CuspAI’s capital raise is the latest significant AI investment by a venture capital group in the past 18 months as investors scramble to catch the wave of tomorrow’s growth leaders.
The Godfather is back
Hinton, 76, left his post at Google last May in an exclusive interview with New York Timesin which he appeared to lament his life’s work while also warning of the future dangers of AI to humanity.
Since then, Hinton’s press appearances have only seen him double down on that position.
In an interview with 60 minutes last October, he suggested that the rogue AI would learn to manipulate its users by learning the works of Machiavelli and other “politically seductive acts.”
He also worries about the impact of AI on the labor market, he told the BBC News night in May that he believed a universal basic income would be needed to cope with the replacement of many “ordinary jobs”.
Now, though, Hinton seems to see promise in CuspAI’s use of the technology at least to combat climate change, even as he meditates on the technology’s other existential threats.
