AI is becoming more popular, so more money is being put in. Gensyn said it would use the money to get the system going faster and hire more people.
Gensyn, a company that provides blockchain-based computing tools for artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, has raised $43 million in a Series A funding round led by a16z, a large venture capital firm.
The protocol used by the U.K.-based company makes it possible for developers to build AI systems on smaller data centers, personal gaming computers, and other connected gear and pay for them when they’re used. Gensysn uses a cryptographic proof network that lets users check that machine learning work shared over the protocol has been done right without the need for middlemen.
Gensysn co-founder Ben Fielding said in a news release on Monday (UTC) that for AI to reach its full potential, it needs a lot of computing power. “We are capturing the electricity of a new age and making it available to everyone at fair market prices and on an unlimited scale.”
Fielding said that this kind of wide access was “essential” to avoid “dangerous biased technology built by the few that serves the many.” The key to making AI that is useful and works well together is to let everyone in the world work on it.
In the press statement, Gensyn co-founder Harry Grieve also said, “With decentralized networks, value is simply added to the network based on supply and demand.”
“It also sharply boosts the amount of computing power by connecting hardware from around the world that was not being used before,” he said.
The news comes at a time when interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is growing. AI could change the way businesses in many fields, such as media, retail, manufacturing, and financial services, work. Nvidia, a company that makes computer chips that are used in the graphics processing units (GPUs) at the heart of AI systems, was worth $1 trillion last month.
Gensyn has raised more than $50 million in its most recent round. The company said it would use the new money to speed up the release of the protocol and hire more people, including protocol and machine learning engineers. CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Eden Block, and a number of AI and cryptocurrency-focused venture capitalists and private investors joined a16z in the round.
In a statement, a16z crypto General Partner Ali Yahya said, “The recent advances in AI are amazing, but the need for a lot of computational power gives big tech companies an edge over startups in the race to capture AI’s value.” “We think Gensyn is the only company that knows and understands both the AI and crypto cypherpunk worlds as well as they do, and we’re excited to work with them to make AI infrastructure much easier for more people to use.”
