Allen Institute wants to help engineers launch AI startups
2Allen Institute wants to help engineers launch AI startups.
The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2), a research center and startup incubator created by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, announced a new residency program that’s aimed at providing the intensive training needed for top engineers to become technical cofounders of AI startups.
Here’s how it works: The organization will recruit a handful of top engineers for the program, which will provide them with a modest salary while they learn how to become the technical cofounder for a startup that uses artificial intelligence as a key part of its product. At the end of that process, which is expected to last 12 to 18 months, they’ll be paired up with an entrepreneur and be given cofounder equity in a new venture that they begin.
The program is powered by the Institute’s AI researchers, who will be helping the residents on their journey to become cofounders. Think of it a bit like graduate school, except that instead of graduating with a diploma, participants will graduate with equity.
It’s a move by the Allen Institute to capitalize on the wave of innovation that can help fuel the creation of new AI-based startups, while at the same time applying the expertise of its researchers and entrepreneurs in residence.