Recently, scientists at Sakana AI have made groundbreaking advancements in the field of artificial intelligence, successfully utilizing vision-language foundation models (FMs) for the first time to achieve automated searching for simulations of artificial life (ALife). This project is called ASAL (Automated Search for Artificial Life).

Tokyo-based AI development company Sakana AI has announced the completion of a $100 million Series A financing round, with investors including NEA, Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, and NVIDIA. Sakana AI focuses on nature-inspired intelligence and model optimization, particularly in evolutionary optimization and sparsity. The partnership with NVIDIA will provide advanced GPU technology support and access to Japanese data centers, aimed at promoting AI research and innovation. Collaboration goals include advancing research and leveraging NVIDIA's infrastructure.

Sakana AI has announced the launch of the 'AI Scientist' system, a comprehensive AI platform capable of independently conducting scientific research, from concept generation, coding, experiment execution, result summarization to paper writing, including peer review. Its design aims to mimic the human scientific research process. The system has demonstrated innovative contributions in several subfields of machine learning, such as diffusion models, transformers, and deep understanding, showcasing high computational efficiency and low costs (approximately $15 per paper). Although the initial version of the system may have some limitations.

In Japan, a revolution in artificial intelligence is quietly emerging. SakanaAI, led by AI heavyweights David Ha and Llion Jones, has just completed a funding round of $127 million, with a strong lineup of investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, and NEA. Founded in July 2023, SakanaAI has quickly become Japan's fastest-growing AI startup due to its unique entrepreneurial vision and top talent.

["Sakana AI has announced the successful raising of $30 million in a seed round of financing.", "Investors include prominent firms such as Lux Capital and Khosla Ventures from the U.S., as well as well-known companies like Sony, NTT, and KDDI.", "The company will focus on research and development over the next year or two, exploring AI systems based on smaller 'agent' networks.", "Operating in Tokyo distinguishes Sakana AI from its Silicon Valley competitors, emphasizing the strength of Japan's top AI researchers."]