Google DeepMind co-creator Thore Graepel raises funds for AI reasoning startup

Thore Graepel, one of the key minds behind AlphaGo, has left Google DeepMind to build a startup focused on AI reasoning. He’s currently raising initial funding in the tens of millions, with expectations that future rounds could reach the hundreds of millions, according to Bloomberg. Graepel’s bet is straightforward: the next leap in AI won’t come from making language models bigger. It’ll come from teaching machines to actually think through problems the way AlphaGo once demolished the world’s best Go player. From board games to boardrooms Graepel originally joined DeepMind in 2015, about a year before AlphaGo made global headlines by defeating world champion Lee Sedol. That 2016 match wasn’t just a milestone for games. It was the moment much of the world realized AI could handle problems with near-infinite complexity. His new venture’s architecture reportedly emphasizes structured search methods and probabilistic planning. Think of it as the difference between memorizing every answer in a textbook versus learning how to solve new problems from scratch. LLMs are exceptionally good at the former. Graepel wants to crack the latter. Between his stints at DeepMind, Graepel spent time at...