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Sentient's Open Deep Search framework to bring advanced AI search to the masses, with $85 million in funding and 1.75 million users on waitlist, promising to
Decentralized artificial intelligence startup Sentient is set to launch Open Deep Search (ODS), a powerful AI search framework that utilizes advanced "reasoning" skills to search the web for information and answer complex questions, with the goal of making advanced AI technology available to the masses [1]. This move is significant as it promises to bring AI search capabilities to a wider audience, with Sentient's mission to pioneer a decentralized approach to model development.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Funding | $85 million |
| Waitlist users | 1.75 million |
| ODS capability | Outperforming Perplexity's Sonar Reasoning Pro model |
| Launch timeline | Coming weeks, with open-source codebase to follow |
Sentient's ODS framework has shown impressive capabilities in tests, surpassing Perplexity AI's most powerful Sonar Reasoning Pro model on the FRAMES benchmark, which tests the advanced reasoning of AI models [1]. The company plans to bring ODS to the masses in its upcoming Sentient Chat tool, a free-to-use generative AI application built as a decentralized alternative to ChatGPT. Sentient has raised $85 million in venture capital funding from backers including Peter Thiel's Founder's Fund, Framework Ventures, and Pantera Capital [1].
The launch of ODS is seen as a challenge to industry giants like OpenAI, Google, Perplexity, and Anthropic, with Sentient's co-founder Himanshu Tyagi stating that "the release of Open Deep Search is a milestone in our mission to make AI accessible to everyone" [1]. The open-source nature of ODS is expected to enable independent AI developers to create low-cost applications that can access advanced AI reasoning functionalities, supporting previously impossible use cases. Sentient Foundation has also committed $42 million to advance open-source AGI, supporting developers, researchers, and startups building AI in the open [2].
The launch of ODS and Sentient Chat has significant implications for the AI industry, with the potential to bring advanced AI search capabilities to a wider audience. As Sentient continues to expand its reach, with partnerships with universities, researchers, and local communities, the question remains as to how the industry will respond to this new challenge [2]. With ODS promising to outperform industry leaders, the future of AI search looks set to become increasingly decentralized and accessible.
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The program provides $42 million in non‑dilutive grants and startup investments to support developers building open‑source AI models and to supply compute resources.
According to the company, ODS outperforms Perplexity AI’s Sonar Reasoning Pro on the FRAMES benchmark and delivers accuracy comparable to OpenAI’s leading models on simpler questions.
Sentient Chat is in early access with a waitlist of over 1.75 million users and is expected to become generally available within two months, after which the ODS codebase will be open‑sourced.
Investors include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, Framework Ventures, and other backers who contributed to the $85 million seed round.
The company cites monetization, the high cost of running large models, and the need for accountability mechanisms as key hurdles.