This Sequoia-backed lab thinks the brain is ‘the floor, not the ceiling’ for AI

AI lab Flapping Airplanes just landed $180 million in seed funding from the likes of Google Ventures, Sequoia, and Index to do something most labs have quietly given up on: making models learn like humans instead of vacuuming up the internet. The founding team, made up of brothers Ben and Asher Spector and co-founder Aidan Smith, is betting that radically more data-efficient training could open the door to entirely new AI capabilities. 

Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, TechCrunch AI editor Russell Brandon sits down with all three founders to discuss why investors wrote such a large check for a lab with no product, what becomes possible with radically more efficient AI, and why they’re prioritizing creativity over credentials. 

Listen to the full episode to hear about: 

Why the Flapping Airplanes team is focused on research first, commercialization later 

What the “neolabs” generation means for AI development 

How they plan to make AI models 1,000x more data efficient. A hint? The team thinks the brain is “the floor, not the ceiling” for AI capabilities 

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.