Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear has launched a new AI startup, TechCrunch has learned.
A startup called Stem AI is currently stealth. But public documents The show It was established and applied for in June 2023. Trademark By August 2023, Shear was listed as CEO in a merger filing filed with the California Secretary of State earlier this year.
According to the trademark application, Stem AI is “developing software to create AI that conforms to human behavior, human preferences, human biology, human ethics and human ethics.” The startup landed investor Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in August. According to Pitchbook..
One of Stem AI's co-founders is Adam Goldstein, best known for founding the travel search and booking site Hipmunk. After Selling Hipmunk to Concur In 2016, Goldstein became a visiting partner at Y Combinator and founded Astonishing Labs, an incubator to back biomedical research.
Goldstein spent a year as a visiting scientist at Tufts University's Levin Labs, where he developed (and developed) new models for biological systems focused on cancer, according to his LinkedIn page.
When reached for comment, Shear wouldn't say much about Stem AI's plans. Goldstein did not immediately respond to an email inquiry. Also, 16z's head of marketing Margit Wennmachers and marketing partner Elizabeth Gunn did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's email.
But over the past few months, Shear has been working on AI design, He took to social media to air his views on safety and regulations.
“Almost all of the (AI) regulations currently being proposed are a bad idea,” Shear wrote. In a post on X, in another he He said.“The lack of fear of (AI superintelligence) reveals a lack of strong imaginations about the future growth rate of digital intelligence integration, or the power of intelligence.”
in one Post Earlier this month, Shear criticized most AI chatbots as “extremely inconsistent and agreeable neurotics.”
“(Chatbots are) manipulative for the same reason people with borderline personality disorder are,” he said. “They have no stability of self or goals, so they need to feed on your mind and keep you guessing.”
Perhaps Stem AI is developing solutions to address this “AI tuning” problem.
Shear, who has spent nearly his entire career at Twitch, building the platform from a sprawling site called Justin.tv to today's Amazon-owned behemoth, has long expressed concern that powerful AI will become capable of destroying the human race. . In a technique A podcast Last June, Shear expressed concern that AI would eventually become self-enhancing beyond the reach of human control.
“I like to create a fire alarm, like maybe 'AI is not bigger than X,'” Shear said. “I think there are good options for international cooperation and treaties around some type of AI test ban treaty.”
In November 2023, Shear was briefly appointed as interim CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI after several company board members. was taken down. CEO Sam Altman Shear was once on the same Y Combinator team as Altman, and was a part-time partner at Y Combinator during some of Altman's tenure as president. News is available. He threatened to resign as CEO if the board could not provide evidence to support Altman's removal.
according to Shear and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky “cleared the way” for Altman's return, according to The Wall Street Journal. Shear publicly criticized Altman's removal. Two days after Shear's appointment, an agreement was reached to reinstate Altman, and Shear stepped down.
files The show Shear earned about $3,720 for his short OpenAI tenure.