In the first half of 2024, driven by the AI boom, the US stock market rose sharply, with the S&P 500 hitting 31 record highs. AI technology has become a must-have for startups, and the combination of Web3 and AI has become a new hot spot in the technology industry. The concept of "AI improves productivity, Web3 changes production relations" has inspired endless imagination.
In this context, the open source AI platform Sentient has completed a seed round of financing of $85 million, led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures. Sentient is committed to building open source AI models through community contributions to compete with OpenAI. Its core contributors include Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, and it plans to launch a test network in the third quarter of this year.
Joey Krug, partner of Founders Fund, said that the Sentient team is very keen in their respective technical fields, and Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital believes that Sentient's open, monetizable and loyal (OML) AI model has disruptive potential. Brandon Potts of Framework Ventures emphasized that the Sentient team is the best choice to solve the economic problems of open source AI.
Next, we will take a closer look at Sentient's future plans and development prospects.
AI has become a hot topic in the field of science and technology innovation, and Sentient has performed well in this process
In the first half of 2024, the field of artificial intelligence has achieved significant performance and improved status in the market. With the rapid development of AI technology, the U.S. stock market continues to rise, with the S&P 500 index frequently hitting new highs. Among them, Nvidia, the “first AI stock”, has become the focus of the market. Its stock price soared 149% in half a year, and the company’s market value exceeded US$3 trillion.
Currently, almost all technology startups are emphasizing their AI technology applications, regardless of whether their main business is directly related to AI. This trend reflects the wide influence of AI technology and the market's high recognition of its prospects. Well-known investment institutions such as a16z no longer set up AI-related funds, because AI technology has become the core element of various startups.
In the intersection of Web3 and AI, the market performance is particularly eye-catching. Combining the productivity improvement of AI and the transformation of production relations of Web3, this field shows great potential. According to the data of the "Funding Weekly Report", in the first half of 2024, a number of "Web3+AI" projects received large-scale financing. These projects cover a wide range of fields from computing power and algorithm infrastructure, data and privacy protection to DeFi and games.
As a prominent representative in this field, Sentient successfully completed a seed round of financing of US$85 million, led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures. Sentient focuses on building open source AI models through community contributions, aiming to compete with closed-source giants such as OpenAI. Its Open, Monetizable and Loyal (OML) AI model is considered to have the potential to subvert the AI development industry.
In the current market, the AI sector has performed strongly, the technology has advanced rapidly, and investors are full of expectations for its prospects. With the rise of more projects such as Sentient, AI technology will continue to play an important role in the market and promote the further development of technology and the market.
Challenging AI giants such as OpenAI, Sentient aims to build an open and monetizable platform
Sentient is an innovative company focused on building open source artificial intelligence (AI) models. It creates a decentralized artificial general intelligence (AGI) platform through community contributions, aiming to compete with traditional closed-source AI development models such as OpenAI. Sentient has established a unique open, monetizable and loyal (OML) model by using blockchain technology to incentivize users to contribute and expand AI models and provide rewards based on contributions.
In July 2024, Sentient successfully completed a seed round of financing of US$85 million, led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures, with other investors including Ethereal Ventures, Robot Ventures, Symbolic Capital, Delphi Ventures, etc. Such a financing scale not only shows the market's high recognition of Sentient, but also reflects the trust in its team and technology.
Sentient's core team is composed of many influential experts in their respective fields. The core members of the team include Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, whose extensive experience in blockchain and encryption provides Sentient with a solid technical foundation. In addition, the team also includes Princeton University Engineering Professor Pramod Viswanath and Indian Institute of Science Professor Himanshu Tyagi, both of whom have deep research backgrounds in AI and information theory. This team combination gives Sentient a unique advantage in the highly competitive AI field.
Sentient's platform encourages users to participate in model development and improvement through community contribution and reward mechanisms. Joey Krug, partner of Founders Fund, pointed out that Sentient's greatest advantage lies in the quality of the team and technical acumen. Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital emphasized that Sentient's open model will help solve the centralization problem in AI development and has the potential to subvert the AI development industry. Brandon Potts of Framework Ventures believes that Sentient's OML model will inject powerful power into the open source community and is the best team to solve the economic problems of open source AI.
Sentient chose to build its platform on Polygon and plans to create its own chain using the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK). This strategic choice not only takes advantage of Polygon's scalability and security, but also provides a highly scalable infrastructure for Sentient's platform. Sentient is expected to launch a testnet in the third quarter of this year to further promote the development and application of its open source AI models.
By building an open and monetizable AI platform, Sentient not only provides a new space for innovation and cooperation for AI developers, but also points the way for the future development of AI. Sentient's financing scale and strong investor lineup show the market's high confidence in its future development, indicating that the open source AI model will usher in new development opportunities.
Based on the Polygon network, Sentient is committed to developing a decentralized AGI system
Sentient is an AI research organization dedicated to building an open source artificial general intelligence (AGI) platform through community contributions. Unlike OpenAI, Sentient's goal is to develop a decentralized AGI system that enables users to collaborate to build and monetize AI models, thereby changing the current centralized status quo of AI technology.
Sentient's technical framework is based on the Polygon network, using its efficient blockchain technology to support the decentralization and openness of the platform. The core of the platform is the OML (Open, Monetized, and Loyal) model, which ensures that the platform can maintain openness, monetization capabilities, and loyalty to the community while supporting developers. In this way, developers can not only share and optimize AI models, but also profit from them and stimulate wider community participation.
Sentient's technical architecture is divided into three main layers: user layer, AI agent layer, and OML model layer. At the user layer, billions of users will interact with AI agents and generate a large amount of data. This data is transmitted to the AI agent layer, and millions of AI agents will continuously optimize their performance by analyzing user interaction data. At the OML model layer, hundreds of AI models are managed and improved through blockchain technology to ensure that each model can continuously improve its intelligence and efficiency based on interaction data.
Sentient's AGI vision is to develop AGI in an open and decentralized way, so that it can not only perform specific tasks, but also demonstrate human-like cognitive abilities in multiple fields. Although this goal is ambitious, Sentient has made initial progress and plans to launch a testnet in the third quarter of this year. The team believes that through the power of the community, this goal can be achieved in the near future to create a truly open and powerful AGI platform.
Overall, Sentient's technical framework and AGI vision not only reflect its technological innovation, but also demonstrate its determination to promote the democratization and openness of AI. By combining blockchain technology and the concept of decentralization, Sentient is opening up a new path for the future development of AI.
Is Sentient reliable? Listen to what top investors say
Why did top investors choose to invest in Sentient, an emerging open source AI platform? Partners from leading investors such as Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Framework Ventures said that Sentient's greatest advantage lies in its outstanding team and innovative technical concepts.
Joey Krug, partner at Founders Fund, pointed out that the quality of Sentient's team was one of the main reasons for their investment. He said: "I have known Sandeep and Pramod for many years, and they are very sharp in their respective technical fields." This trust in team members makes investors confident in Sentient's future.
Paul Veradittakit, managing partner of Pantera Capital, also spoke highly of Sentient's open, monetizable, and loyal (OML) AI model. He believes that if AI development remains closed source, many key aspects of society will be vulnerable to the centralized effects of censorship and rent-seeking. Sentient's open source model will have great potential to subvert the AI development industry.
Brandon Potts, partner at Framework Ventures, emphasized the huge boost that Sentient's open and monetizable AI model has given to the open source community. He said that the Sentient team is the "most capable" team to solve the economic problems of open source AI, and this ability will bring powerful transformation to the entire AI field.
In summary, top investors' trust in Sentient comes not only from its outstanding team background, but also from its innovative technical architecture and clear vision. As AI technology develops rapidly today, Sentient's open source AGI platform is exactly the transformative force the market needs.
However, can Sentient truly achieve its ambitious goals, subvert the current AI development model, and promote the openness and democratization of AI technology? This will be a question worthy of our continued attention.
