Inflection AI, a startup that creates a chatbot called Pi, has raised $1.3 billion in one of the largest funding rounds in the history of artificial intelligence. The company, which was founded by former Google and LinkedIn executives, aims to use its technology to create personalized digital assistants that can interact with users in natural language.
The Vision of Inflection AI
Inflection AI was founded in 2022 by Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s influential artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn and a partner at Greylock Partners. The company’s vision is to create a new kind of artificial intelligence that can generate content, information, and advice for users based on their preferences, goals, and context.
The company’s flagship product is Pi, a chatbot that can have text and voice conversations with users in a friendly and supportive manner. Pi can also perform tasks such as booking travel, ordering food, or scheduling appointments. Pi is powered by massive generative AI models that can learn from large amounts of data and create original and relevant responses.
The Funding Round and the Investors
Inflection AI announced on June 29, 2023, that it has raised $1.3 billion in a funding round led by Hoffman, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Nvidia. The deal values the company at $4 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
The funding round reflects the growing interest and investment in artificial intelligence, especially in generative models that can create new content and knowledge from existing data. Nvidia, which makes chips that power AI applications, has seen its stock soar about 180% this year, thanks in part to the demand for its products.
Inflection AI said it will use the funds to build the world’s largest AI computing cluster, with 22,000 of Nvidia’s H100 chips, which are designed for use with large language models. The company said it will also expand its team and develop new features and services for Pi.
The Future of Inflection AI
Inflection AI’s CEO Suleyman said that personalized AI services are “the most transformational tool of our lifetimes” and that “this is truly an inflection point”. He added that the company’s goal is to make Pi available to millions of users around the world and to enable them to access information and advice tailored to their needs and preferences.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang also praised Inflection AI for using Nvidia technology to “deploy massive generative AI models that enable amazing personal digital assistants”. He said that Inflection AI is “at the forefront of a new era of AI-powered computing”.
Inflection AI is not the only company working on generative AI models and chatbots. Other players in the field include OpenAI, which created GPT-3, a powerful language model that can generate text on various topics; Facebook, which developed BlenderBot, a chatbot that can have engaging and empathetic conversations; and Microsoft, which acquired Nuance Communications, a leader in speech recognition and conversational AI.
However, Inflection AI claims that its technology is unique and superior to its competitors. The company said that Pi is not only able to generate content and information, but also to understand the user’s context, preferences, goals, and emotions. The company also said that Pi is able to learn from its interactions with users and improve over time.
Inflection AI said that it plans to launch Pi publicly later this year and that it will offer different versions of the chatbot for different domains and use cases. The company said that it hopes to make Pi a trusted companion and advisor for users who want to achieve their personal and professional goals.
