AI2's new pre-seed fund will help create 12 new spinouts in fields such as deep learning, computer vision and natural language processing.

Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) has raised a $10m fund from investors including Chris Re and Shwetak Patel, faculty members of Stanford University and University of Washington (UW) respectively. Re is an associate professor in Stanford’s Department of Computer Science, while Patel is a UW endowed professor in computer science and engineering and electrical and computer engineering. The fund, dubbed AI2 Incubator, is aligned with AI2’s existing startup program and has also been backed by venture firms Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins and hedge fund Two Sigma Investments. Other LPs include private investors Adam Selipsky, Carol Reiley, Jeff Wilke, Charlie Bell, Laura Butler, Leigh McMillan, Nadia Shouraboura, Halle Tecco and Jeff Hammerbacher. AI2 Incubator will support 12 new spinouts from the eponymous program targeting AI-related fields such as deep learning, computer vision and natural language processing. Each spinout will be eligible to receive up to $800,000 in pre-seed funding. AI2 was co-founded in 2014 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Oren Etzioni, a professor at UW’s computer science department who leads the initiative as chief executive. Spinouts from the institute include Xnor.ai, a developer of technology to run machine learning and image recognition from low-power devices that was acquired yesterday by consumer electronics producer Apple. Xnor exploited UW research. Jacob Colker, co-managing director of AI2 Incubator, said: “The next wave of big tech companies are going to be AI-first companies, and we are continuing to work to prove that the AI2 Incubator is one of the best places in the world where entrepreneurs can build the next big AI-first company. “This fund, and the people who have participated in this fund, is one more proof point to that effect.”

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