Carnack said Friday his new artificial general intelligence startup, called Keen Technologies, has raised $20 million in a financing round from former GitHub CEONat Friedman and Co founder Daniel Gross. Stripe co-founder and CEO patrick Collison, Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lutke, and storied venture fund Sequioa are among those investing in the round, he said.
"This is explicity a focusing effort for me. I could write a $20M check myself, but knowing that other's people money is on the line engenders a greter sense of discipline and determination. I had talked about that as a possibility for a while, and I am glad Nat pushed me on it." he said in a tweet.
AGI, short for "artificial general intelligence," is a category of AI systems that can theoretically perform any task that a human can. That's as opposed to AI systems today, which are designed for narrow, specific applications like generating art, driving cars, and playing video games. Some optimists believe AGI could be achieved within the next century, thanks to emerging algorithm techniques and increasingly powerful computer hardware. Others, including the chief scientist at Carmack's current employer, Yann LeCun, have cast doubt on the notion that AGI will ever be a reality.
For his part, Carmack seems firmly in the optimist camp. Speaking to MT research scientist Lex Fridman on a recent podcast, he said that he believes AI will someday reach the point where it behaves akin to a human being or living creature, capable of becoming a "universal remote worker."
"I do not believe in fast takeoffs...[but] I think that we will go from a point where we start seeing [AI powered] things that credibly look like animals," Crmack said. "I think animal intelligence is closer to human intelligence than a lot of people like to think and... There's just that smooth spectrum of how the brain developed and cortexes and scaling of different things going on there
Carmack goes on to note that his interest in AHI was in part spurred by Sam Altman, who he says tried to recruit him to join OpenAI. (Altman is one of the original co-founders of OpenAI, the high profile AI research lab based in San Fransisco.) Altman whopreviously said he expects AI to one day surpass human intelligence, has been vocal about his concerns about AGI - specifically how it might damage society if built or used incorrectly.
Carmack will still continue to consult with Meta on VR matters, but his work with the social juggernaut, he said, will consume only 20% of his time.
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