Keen Software CEO invests $10m in new AI firm

Keen Software CEO Marek Rosa has invested $10m to form a new company focused on developing general artificial intelligence.

The company was founded a year and a half ago. Its main goal is to build artificial brains that can learn, be creative and adapt to their environment, just like a human. Though the project focuses on general uses, it will also have uses in games.

“Imagine an AI that is as smart, adaptable, and able to learn as a human being," said Rosa. "Then imagine telling this AI to improve itself – to make itself even smarter, faster, and more capable of solving problems. Such an AI will be the last thing humans ever have to invent – once we have this technology, our AI could invent other technologies, further the sciences, cure diseases, take us further in space than we’ve ever been, and more.”

The project is already said to have completed two milestones on its path toward its goals, such as making an AI learn to play Pong and then developing an AI that can play a game requiring it to complete a series of actions in order to reach a final goal. This, said Rosa, meant it is capable of working with a delayed reward, and that it is able to create a hierarchy of goals.

Despite its general potential uses, Rosa plans to introduce the AI tech into Space and Mideival Engineers during the next few months. GoodAI has released a visual tool called Brain Simulator, in which users can design their own artificial brain architectures. By integrating its games with the tool, the game AIs can learn from a player training them, and can eventually compete with other AIs.