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Geoff Ralston , well - known in the startup community of interests for his years at Y Combinator , is back in the formal investment annulus , heannouncedThursday .
His raw monetary fund is called Safe Artificial Intelligence Fund , or SAIF , which is both an explanation of its thesis and a gaming on words .
Ralston is specifically seem for inauguration that “ enhance AI safety , security , and responsible deployment , ” as his fund’swebsitedescribes . He design to write $ 100,000 checks as a SAFE , “ pun intend , ” he says , with a $ 10 million jacket . A SAFE is , of path , the invest now / price later pre - seed investment putz pioneered by Y Combinator ( it stands for wide-eyed agreement for succeeding equity ) .
While most VCs these days are looking to invest in AI startups , Ralston ’s take is a bit more focussed on the thought of safe AI , even though he hold the construct is a bit all-embracing .
“ The vast legal age of AI projects out in the world today are using the applied science to work out problems or create efficiency or create raw capabilities . They are not needs per se unsafe , but refuge is not their elemental headache , ” Ralston tell TechCrunch . “ I intend to fund inauguration whose primary objective is safe AI — as I have ( very broadly ) specify it . ”
That list include startups centre on improving the safety of AI , like those that clarify an AI ’s determination - reach process or benchmark AI safety machine . It includes production that protect cerebral prop , those that ensure an AI conforms to compliance requirements , fight down disinformation , and observe AI - generated blast . He also wants to invest in functional AI tools with built - in safety in idea , such as better AI forecasting tools and AI - enabled business negotiation tool that wo n’t reveal corporate secret to foreigner .
This might sound like a list of AI inauguration that many VCs are pursue , but there are area Ralston says he wo n’t back . One example is full autonomous weapons .
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“ There are certainly use of AI which would ( will ) be dangerous : using the applied science to create bioarm , to bring off conventional weapons without a human in the loop-the-loop , etc . , ” he explained .
In fact , he ’d care to fund “ weapon safety organisation ” that could detect or prevent attacks from AI weapon .
This is an interesting contrarian vantage point from many of today ’s defense tech founders and VCs . As TechCrunch has previously account , some of the people build AI weapons have increasingly been float the thought that such weapons would be better operating without a man .
Still , all things AI is a crowded field for VCs these days . That ’s where Ralston hope his YC connections could give him an advantage . Ralstondeparted YC in 2022 , after three year as president(succeeded by Garry Tan ) and over a decennary as an adviser .
Ralston plans to offer mentoring of the kind he did at the storied inauguration throttle valve and has promised to coach them through how to hold to YC . And he ’s offering to help them tap into his considerable investor connection .
Ralston turn down to say how self-aggrandising this store is , how many startups he intends to back , or who his LP backers are .
