General Intuition's $2.3B bet that video games can train AI agents (techcrunch.com)

General Intuition, a startup focused on training AI through video games, has raised $320 million at a $2.3 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $454 million. The company's innovative model leverages extensive gameplay data, specifically the action labels embedded in millions of hours of gaming footage, to enhance AI spatial-temporal reasoning. This approach allows their AI agents to seamlessly transition from gameplay to physical real-world interactions, demonstrated by a quadrupedal robot navigating its environment using a brain similar to the one guiding an AI playing Fortnite. This significant funding round, led by Khosla Ventures with notable participation from industry leaders like Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, will primarily support scaling compute capacity and improving the model. General Intuition aims to develop an ecosystem where its technology enables other companies to build applications such as self-driving cars or robotics more efficiently. Their ethical commitment to preventing the use of AI for harmful military applications further distinguishes them, as they focus on empowering gamers and leveraging their platform, Nerve, to provide job opportunities in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.