With a €28.5 million war fund and an audacious goal to “unlock the future of machine intelligence,” Paris-based FlexAI came out of stealth today. FlexAI is re-architecting computational infrastructure in order to pick that lock.
The flagship product of the firm is an on-demand cloud service. The solution, which is scheduled for release later this year, will let programmers create and train AI applications using heterogeneous computational architectures.
The workload will be abstracted and orchestrated to the best architecture by an integrated software layer. Users can thus use various hardware configurations without requiring intricate code modifications.
This will maximize simplicity and efficiency. FlexAI seeks to increase access to AI by offering simple access to a broad variety of workloads and compute.
The creators of the company, Brijesh Tripathi and Dali Kilani, stated that their ultimate objective is to make AI solutions available for the most pressing issues facing humanity. They believe that more access will spur more inventions.
The CEO of FlexAI, Tripathi, stated, “We believe in AI’s transformative power to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems, but it will require a 1000x magnitude more compute to be able to realise this vision,”
“The availability of AI compute today is limited to a select few. Our vision is to unlock access to compute for the many.”
Great Compute Problem in AI
Concern over AI’s insatiable thirst for processing power is growing as FlexAI emerges. The developments in the sector are getting more and more costly, unattainable, and unsustainable.
FlexAI promises to have answers for each of these issues. The service reduces compute expenses for companies, which can account for up to 80% of capital. FlexAI may guarantee that users only pay for the compute that is really used by automatically allocating the necessary processing power for a particular task.
Additionally, the strategy would lessen the growing carbon footprint of AI. AI is expected to use up more Indian electricity by 2030, according to the CEO of semiconductor manufacturer Arm. Model complexity and scale will only raise the requirement for higher energy efficiency.
Additionally, the cloud service seeks to address the rising skills gap. The current AI infrastructure cannot function without highly specialized knowledge. FlexAI wants to make it easier for more developers and businesses to create AI apps by creating a software layer.
$30 million (€28.5 million) in seed money has already been allocated to these three options. Alpha Intelligence Capital (AIC), Elaia Partners, and Heartcore Capital led the financing.
AIC Managing Partner Antoine Blondeau emphasized how urgently FlexAI’s service is needed.
He stated that “Compute is lagging, not leading, AI models’ increasingly potent capabilities,” “To deliver on AI’s potential, the industry has to solve the issue of compute costs and that of stack complexity — both of which dramatically increase development costs and time to market.”
“Brijesh and Dali, uniquely, have the hardware and software skill sets to architect and build the ecosystem for the AI compute orchestration layer.”
Developing France’s AI Industry
The investors also commended the French AI ecosystem for its increasing strength. France has developed as a center for artificial intelligence in Europe under the leadership of unicorn Mistral AI.
Blondeaue stated that France’s AI industry has “global ambitions” due to its solid scientific foundation, expanding pool of startup founders, and easier access to international funding.
Emmanuel Macron will benefit from the sector’s growth as well. Thus far, there has been praise and ridicule for the French president’s initiative to establish “a startup nation” has thus far attracted both admiration and mockery. In the thriving AI scene, he now has evidence that his vision can become a reality.”
