(Dec 4): OpenAI agreed to buy Neptune, a start-up that makes tools for analysing progress during artificial intelligence (AI) model training.
The transaction will be in stock, but OpenAI declined to disclose specific terms. Neptune makes software that helps OpenAI and other customers analyse training runs and find issues when developing AI models. The ChatGPT maker has used Neptune’s tools for more than a year to conduct multiple experiments and compare different versions.
As AI models grow more complex, training can be a pricey and critical exercise — one that can determine the speed of model development and whether critical issues are caught before launch in the highly competitive market.
Neptune is based in Poland and has about 60 employees, not all of whom will receive job offers from OpenAI. The company plans to keep the Neptune tools for its own use and wind down access to other customers, which include Samsung Electronics Co, HP Inc and software company Poolside, according to Neptune’s website.
The start-up “has built a fast, precise system that allows researchers to analyse complex training workflows”, Jakub Pachocki, the chief scientist of OpenAI, said on Wednesday in a statement. Its tools will help OpenAI “expand our visibility into how models learn”, he said.
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
