AI21 Labs

Tel Aviv-based company
AI21 Labs
IndustryAI
Founded2017; 7 years ago (2017)
FounderYoav Shoham, Ori Goshen, Amnon Shashua
Headquarters
Tel Aviv
ProductsJurassic-1
Jurassic-2
Wordtune
Websiteai21.com

AI21 Labs is an Israeli company specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP), which develops AI systems that can understand and generate natural language.[1]

History

AI21 Labs was founded in November 2017 by Yoav Shoham, Ori Goshen, and Amnon Shashua in Tel Aviv, Israel.[2][3]

In January 2019, the company raised $9.5 million from investors in a seed funding round.[4] On October 27, 2020, AI21 Labs launched its first product, Wordtune, an AI-based writing assistant that understands context and can suggest paraphrases and rewrites.[5][6][7] Google named Wordtune one of its favorite extensions of 2021.[8] In August 2021, the company launched AI21 Studio.[9][10][1] In the same month, Jurassic-1, a natural language processing system, was launched with a token vocabulary over 250,000.[11][12][13][14]

In November 2021, Walden Catalyst announced an investment of $20 Million in AI21 Labs.[15][16] Later that month, AI21 Labs completed a $25 million series A round led by Pitango First.[17] In July 2022, the company raised $64 million in a series B funding round led by Ahren with the participation of prof. Amnon Shashua, Walden Catalyst, Pitango, TPY Capital, and Mark Leslie.[9][18][19]

On January 17, 2023, AI21 Labs announced the launch of Wordtune Spices,[20] a generative AI tool that generates a range of text options that can enhance sentences.[21][1][22]

On March 9, 2023, the company announced the release of Jurassic-2, claiming it has better response times, understands more languages, and features advanced instruction following.[23]

On August 31, 2023, the company announced the closing of $155 million Series C financing round. Investors include previous participants, alongside new ones such as Google and Nvidia.[24][25]

On March 29, 2024 the company released the Jamba (language model) - an open weights large language model built on a hybrid Mamba SSM transformer using mixture of experts with up to 256k context.[26]

See also

  • Jamba (language model) - Large langauge model developed by the company
  • ChatGPT
  • OpenAI

References

  1. ^ a b c Chen, Brian X. (2023-02-01). "A.I. Bots Can't Report This Column. But They Can Improve It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  2. ^ "Amnon Shashua's AI21 Labs raises $35m to reinvent writing". Globes. 2020-11-22. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  3. ^ "Israeli tech startup AI21 Labs raises $34.5M in funding to challenge tech giants in AI language race". Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  4. ^ Shemer, Simona (2020-11-22). "Israeli Startup AI21 Labs Raises $34.5M For AI-Based Language Tech". NoCamels. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  5. ^ Desk, AIT News (2020-10-27). "AI21 Labs Comes Out of Stealth and Launches First Deep-Tech Writing Assistant, Wordtune". AiThority. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  6. ^ "AI21 Labs rolls out AI-powered writing companion". Geektime. 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  7. ^ "Amnon Shashua's new baby raises $64 million. They now have millions of users". Geektime. 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  8. ^ "Google Reveals Top Chrome Extensions of 2021 to Enhance Productivity". Gadgets 360. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  9. ^ a b Wiggers, Kyle (2022-07-12). "AI21 Labs nabs $64M to ramp up AI-powered language services". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  10. ^ FinSMEs (2022-07-12). "AI21 Labs Raises $64M in Series B Funding". FinSMEs. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  11. ^ "What this "Miracle" A.I. says about the future of the technology". Fortune. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  12. ^ "Shashua's AI21 Labs launches tool to help read documents 75% faster". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  13. ^ "Shashua's A121 Labs launches NLP model to rival GPT-3". Globes. 2021-11-08. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  14. ^ "Watch out, GPT-3, here comes AI21's 'Jurassic' language model". ZDNET. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  15. ^ Orbach, Meir (2021-11-01). "Amnon Shashua's A21 Labs raises $20 million from Walden Catalyst at $400 million valuation". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  16. ^ "AI21 Labs Started by Amnon Shashua Has $400 Million Valuation". Jewish Business News. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  17. ^ Orbach, Meir (2020-11-19). "AI21 Labs completes $25 million round led by Pitango". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  18. ^ BEN-DAVID, RICKY (2022-06-13). "AI21 Labs, co-founded by Amnon Shashua, pulls in $64m for AI language services". The Times of Israel.
  19. ^ Martin, Noga (2022-07-13). "AI-based startup seeking to change how people read, write raises $64M". www.israelhayom.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  20. ^ Quach, Katyanna. "AI21 Labs writing tool will not do all the hard work for you". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  21. ^ Wrobel, Sharon. "AI21 Labs, co-founded by Amnon Shashua, rolls out AI feature to spice up writing". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  22. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (2023-01-17). "AI21 Labs intros an AI writing assistant that cites its sources". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  23. ^ Wrobel, Sharon (2023-03-09). "Tel Aviv startup rolls out new advanced AI language model to rival OpenAI". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 2023-03-09. Retrieved 2023-11-26.
  24. ^ "OpenAI Challenger AI21 Labs Nears Funding at $1.2 Billion Valuation". The Information. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  25. ^ "Israeli generative AI co AI21 Labs raises $155m at $1.4b valuation". Globes. 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2023-08-31.
  26. ^ "Introducing Jamba: AI21's Groundbreaking SSM-Transformer Model". www.ai21.com. Retrieved 2024-03-29.


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