Adaption Labs, a new venture founded by AI researcher Sara Hooker and Sudip Roy, has secured $50 million in seed funding to develop more efficient AI systems. The San Francisco-based startup aims to create models that require less computing power and are more adaptable to specific tasks, contrasting with the trend of scaling up existing models.
The funding round was led by Emergence Capital Partners, with contributions from various investors including Mozilla Ventures and Threshold Ventures. Hooker, who previously served as vice president of research at Cohere, emphasized the need for AI models that can learn continuously without the costly process of retraining.
This approach challenges the dominant belief in the AI sector that larger models yield better results. According to Hooker, the industry is reaching a "reckoning point" where improvements must come from adaptability rather than sheer size. Adaption Labs joins a new wave of AI labs seeking innovative solutions to the challenges of continuous learning.