# Is Fetch.ai ( FET) a sleeping giant? #

Founded in 2017 and launched via IEO on Binance in March 2019, Fetch.AI is an artificial intelligence (AI) lab building an open, permissionless, decentralized machine learning network with a crypto economy. Fetch.ai democratizes access to AI technology with a permissionless network upon which anyone can connect and access secure datasets by using autonomous AI to execute tasks that leverage its global network of data. The Fetch.AI model is rooted in use cases like optimizing DeFi trading services, transportation networks (parking, micromobility), smart energy grids, travel — essentially any complex digital system that relies on large-scale datasets.

Fetch.ai was founded by Toby Simpson, Humayun Sheikh and Thomas Hain.

Humayun Sheikh is the current CEO of Fetch.ai. He is also the CEO and founder of Mettalex and the founder of uVue and itzMe.

Toby Simpson is the former COO of Fetch.ai, now a member of the Advisory Board. He was also the CTO at Ososim Limited, as well as Head of Software Design at DeepMind.

Thomas Hain is the former Chief Science Officer of Fetch.ai. Before that, he was a co-founder and director of Koemei.