AI Foundation raises $10 million to launch products that benefit humanity

The AI Foundation today announced the closure of a $10 million funding round to commercialize products that benefit humanity.

AI Foundation declined to go into details about the kinds of products it plans to commercialize, but said they will be aligned with the company’s mission to democratize and decentralize artificial intelligence, CEO Lars Buttler told VentureBeat in a phone interview.

The AI Foundation’s first product, released recently, called Reality Defender, combines human moderation and machine learning to identify malicious content meant to deceive people such as deepfakes.

“We think this is going to be a huge problem going forward,” Buttler said.

Created in 2017 and operated in stealth until recently, the AI Foundation attempts to be both a commercial and social venture with a mission to create personalized AI that can be used by all people.

To this end, the AI Foundation created its own Global AI Council that attempts to anticipate and counteract the negative effects of AI.

“What can go wrong in the short term? Meaning literally in the next year, five years, existing AI technology — not talking about general AI where the world might end, it’s all about existing technology,” he said. “How can it be used to improve people’s lives in a dramatic way and what tools and products can we develop in the short term that can actually work and counteract things?”

Founders Fund partner Cyan Banister and You & Mr. Jones founder David Jones will join the AI Foundation’s board of directors, while Twitter cofounder Biz Stone has joined the Global AI Council.

The $10 million round was led by You & Mr. Jones and Founders Fund with participation from Endeavor and Biz Stone, among others.

The AI Foundation is based in San Francisco and currently has 25 employees.