AI lab Flapping Airplanes just raised $180 million in seed funding from Google Ventures, Sequoia, Index and others to do what most labs have quietly given up on: train models to learn like humans instead of scavenging the internet. The founding team, made up of brothers Ben and Asher Spector and co-founder Aidan Smith, is betting that fundamentally data-efficient training could open the door to entirely new AI capabilities.
Today on TechCrunch’s Equity Podcast, TechCrunch AI Editor Russell Brandon speaks with all three founders about why investors wrote such big checks to labs with no products, what AI’s massive efficiencies will enable, and why they prioritize creativity over qualifications.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
Why the Flapping Airplanes team focuses on research first, then commercialization What the “neolabs” generation means for AI development How to make your AI models 1,000x more data efficient Tips? Research team believes the brain is the ‘floor, not the ceiling’ for AI capabilities
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