John Carmack’s AGI startup raises $20M from Sequoia, Nat Friedman, Patrick Collison and others

John Carmack, the game developer who co-founded id Software, is working on a new venture that has attracted capital from some big names.

Carmack said his new artificial general intelligence startup has raised $20 million from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Patrick Collison, the co-founder and CEO of Stripe, is one of the investors in the round.

I mentioned this in the Lex interview, but it is official now:

Keen Technologies, my new AGI company, has raised a $20M round, led by @natfriedman and @danielgross, with @patrickc, @tobi, @sequoia, @CapitalFactory, and Jim Keller participating.

— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) August 19, 2022

This is a focus for me. Knowing that other people's money is on the line makes me more determined and disciplined. I am glad Nat pushed me to do that because I had talked about it for a long time.

AGI is a category of artificial intelligence that can perform any task a human can. Today's artificial intelligence systems are designed for specific applications like generating art, driving cars, and playing video games. AGI could be achieved within the next century, according to some optimists. The chief scientist at Carmack's current employer doubts that AGI will ever happen.

Carmack seems to be in the optimistic camp. According to the MIT research scientist, he believes that the day will come when artificial intelligence will be capable of being a universal remote worker.

Carmack doesn't believe in fast takeoffs, but he thinks we will eventually see things that look like animals. I think animal intelligence is closer to human intelligence than a lot of people think.

Carmack said that Sam Altman tried to recruit him to join OpenAI and that his interest in AGI was spurred by him. The high-profile artificial intelligence research lab based in San Francisco is co-founded by Monsanto. He has been vocal about his concerns about AGI, specifically how it might damage society if built or used incorrect.

Carmack's work with Meta will consume 20% of his time, but he will still consult with them on virtual reality issues.

John Carmack is one of the best engineers in the world and a national treasure.

Thrilled to be leading this round and supporting him in building Keen Technologies! https://t.co/tnhUTGceKc

— Nat Friedman (@natfriedman) August 19, 2022

Carmack isn't the only one who has found an ambitious startup. Over the course of a year, co-founders of LinkedIn and DeepMind have been building a startup that aims to translate human interactions into a language computers can understand. The co-founding of Anthropic is a former VP of research at OpenAI, who studied the behaviors of artificial intelligence.