Ex-Google DeepMind Engineers Launch AI Startup Pioneering Self-Improving Technology While Keeping It Strictly Internal
Summary
Two ex-Google DeepMind engineers have launched Poetiq, a startup developing self-improving AI technology kept strictly internal, while debuting Augur, a benchmarking tool helping enterprises find the best AI model for specific tasks.
Key Points
- Former Google DeepMind engineers Ian Fischer and Shumeet Baluja have founded Poetiq, a startup building Recursive Self-Improvement technology using 'self-optimizing optimizers' that improve themselves on narrowly-scoped tasks without modifying the underlying language models.
- Poetiq is launching Augur, a benchmarking tool that helps enterprises and researchers identify the best AI model for specific tasks using customized, domain-specific benchmarks, a product that emerged directly from the company's RSI research.
- Despite growing industry concerns about RSI risks from figures like Anthropic's Dario Amodei and a coalition of over 1,200 researchers, Poetiq is keeping its RSI technology strictly internal, arguing that task-specific optimization may ultimately prove more practical than pursuing general superintelligence.