Recursive Superintelligence, a London-based AI startup established only months ago, has emerged from stealth after securing over £481.3 million in funding at a £3.44 billion valuation. The investment round was led by GV, the venture capital arm of Google, and Greycroft, with additional backing from chip manufacturers Nvidia and AMD.

The company is operating on the premise that artificial intelligence systems can be designed to improve themselves by evaluating their own performance without the need for human intervention. The startup, which was incorporated in London and maintains additional offices in San Francisco, currently operates with a team of fewer than 30 staff members.

The founding team includes CEO Richard Socher, formerly the chief scientist at Salesforce, and Tim Rocktäschel, an AI professor at University College London and former Google DeepMind scientist. The workforce also includes researchers who previously held positions at Meta and OpenAI.

In a blog post on X, the company stated: “The fastest path to superintelligence will be realised by AI that recursively improves itself, and does so via open-ended algorithms that drive endless innovation. We will first focus on the science of AI itself (by creating AI that improves AI), but the playbook we create will soon allow us to revolutionise every scientific discipline. The potential benefits for humanity of safely creating such an advance cannot be overstated.”

Recursive Superintelligence joins several other new ventures focused on alternative methods for enhancing artificial intelligence. These include AMI Labs, founded by Yann LeCun, and Ineffable Intelligence, led by David Silver. The startup intends to focus initially on the internal mechanics of AI development before applying its methods to broader scientific fields.

Image source: Recursive Superintelligence