Andreessen Horowitz · Palantir · Microsoft · TechCrunch AI
Vals, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is looking to become the gold standard for AI benchmarking
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Benchmarking has become the industry norm for how AI companies validate their models’ capabilities and, when the metrics swing in their favor, stand out from competitors and advertise their superiority.
Key facts
- Then, last month, after a period of rapid growth, it raised $40 million in a series A led by Andreessen Horowitz
- Krishnan said that as the startup grows, the plan is to relocate to a significantly bigger office, as well as to bring on an additional 10 to 15 people
- Vals, a startup formed in 2024, says that it is on a mission to fix this imperfect system
- Rayan Krishnan, the company’s 25-year-old co-founder, previously interned at Palantir, and, as an undergraduate at Stanford, worked for Microsoft and the school’s much lauded artificial intelligence
Summary
Unfortunately, companies have also figured out how to outwit legacy benchmarking systems, many of which are older, and not built to measure the capabilities of modern models. Vals, a startup formed in 2024, says that it is on a mission to fix this imperfect system. Rayan Krishnan, the company’s 25-year-old co-founder, previously interned at Palantir, and, as an undergraduate at Stanford, worked for Microsoft and the school’s much lauded artificial intelligence lab. “We were seeing a bunch of new, capable models come to market quickly, and the academic benchmarks not keeping up with that frontier advance,” Krishnan shares.