AI researcher François Chollet founds a new AI lab focused on AGI

François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs.

The startup, Goodit will consist of an AI science and research laboratory. Search for “develop and operate” AGI. AGI, which stands for “artificial general intelligence,” typically refers to AI that can perform any task a human can. It is a goal agreement for many AI companies, including OpenAI.

“We are betting on a different path to build AI capable of true invention, adaptation and innovation,” Chollet wrote in a series of places on X. “We believe we have a small but real chance to achieve a breakthrough – creating AI that can learn at least as efficiently as people, and that can continue to improve over time with no bottlenecks in sight.”

Ndea plans to use a technique called program synthesis, in tandem with other technical approaches, to unlock AGI. Chollet thinks that the program’s synthesis, which allows AI to generalize problems it has not seen before from just a few examples, can help overcome the most intractable problems in AI research.

Program synthesis is traditionally computer intensive. But Chollet thinks that this limitation can be overcome – and that overcoming it will help accelerate scientific progress.

“We are not alone in recognizing the potential of program synthesis – it is a technique that every frontier AI laboratory is now beginning to explore,” reads a blog post on Ndea’s website. “We are on the cusp of a pivotal moment in scientific history and the world deserves every direct and unique attempt possible to build AGI.”

Ndea, which Chollet co-founded with Zapier co-founder and head of AI Mike Knoop, did not disclose whether it has raised capital from outside investors. But the company is currently hiring for remote research positions, suggesting there is at least some financial support.

It’s not every day you see people of this caliber @fchollet and @mikeknoop decide to start a company! I’m excited to be involved as a supporter, but more importantly, his vision of how to solve hard problems in AI is fantastic. Our field is dominated by hype and hope – … https://t.co/7u6OT1vrHc

– Naveen Rao (@NaveenGRao) January 15, 2025

Knoop says he will step away from his day-to-day work at Zapier to focus on Ndea, but will remain a member of Zapier’s board.

“We have assembled the world’s first program synthesis team,” Knoop he said in a post on X. “Our first focus is on program synthesis driven by deep learning to create AGI that can invent, adapt and innovate… But even more exciting is the chance to metaphorically travel in the time in the future: learning, inventing, and discovering things that won’t happen organically for decades or even centuries.”

Chollet, what a short time launched a nonprofit with Knoop to develop benchmarks for AGI, is the latest high-profile AI researcher to leave Big Tech to found an independent AI lab. Perhaps best known as the creator of Keras, a high-level open source API that can be used to create AI models and tackle machine learning tasks, Chollet. announced last November he will leave Google after almost a decade there.

Ilya Sutskever, the former chief scientist and co-founder of OpenAI, last year founded Safe Superintelligence, an AI lab that has raised more than $1 billion in capital from investors including Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. Elsewhere, longtime Google AI researcher and Stanford academic Fei-Fei Li heads up Laboratories of the worlda company that develops AI systems that can generate 3D simulations similar to video games.

TechCrunch has a newsletter focused on AI! Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.