A non-profit laboratory dedicated to open research in artificial intelligence (AI) called Kyutai has been founded by the iliad Group, the CMA CGM Group, and Schmidt Futures. Each of these organizations has contributed $110 million to fund the project, with Schmidt Futures joining as a co-founder. The lab’s goal is to tackle the challenges facing modern AI by developing large multimodal models and inventing new algorithms to improve their performance, reliability, and efficiency.
Kyutai has already assembled a team of researchers with both academic and business backgrounds. The lab’s CEO, Patrick Pérez, spoke about the importance of this investment in AI: “With this new funding for artificial intelligence research at Kyutai, we hope to create more opportunities for young people to benefit from all that this technology has to offer. Our team will have all the resources they need to push boundaries and develop cutting-edge AI models that will benefit everyone.”
Rodolphe Saadé, President and CEO of the CMA CGM Group expressed his excitement about the venture: “Thanks to this investment in AI at Kyutai, Europe is well positioned to win the race for global supremacy in this field. Our researchers are some of the best in the world, and with all of our resources behind them, we can create even more powerful AI models that will benefit us all.”
Xavier Niel, Chairman and Founder of the iliad Group added: “France is uniquely positioned to lead in AI research thanks to its strong academic institutions, cutting-edge computing power