Ex-Google researchers raise $30m to develop AI in Japan

Sony, NTT and KDDI join Sakana AI's seed funding round

20240116 Sakana AI

Sakana AI co-founders Llion Jones, left, and David Ha (Photo by Masaharu Ban)

WATARU SUZUKI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based artificial intelligence startup founded by former Google researchers, on Tuesday said it has raised $30 million to develop new AI models with "a new approach."

Sakana, which means "fish" in Japanese, was co-founded last year by CEO David Ha, who led Google Brain's research team in Tokyo, and Llion Jones, co-author of a paper on an AI model that is now widely used in applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot.

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