OneofEurope’stop AI researchers, who is heading upa3D AI foundation model startup, says that 3D AI models are “kind of where ChatGPT for language wasfive years ago”.
Matthias Niessner,the CEO andco-founderofSpAItial,tooka leave of absence from leadingthe visualcomputingand AI lab at the Technical University of Munich to launch the Munich andLondon-basedstartupSpAItial,whichlast year landed a $13m seed round.
The funding round ishigh by European standards for a seed round, but small in comparison to the billions of dollars being raised by US large language model firms.
Speaking onthe Tech.eupodcast, Niessner, whose research helped launch UK AI startup Synthesia,discusses SpAItial,gettinghold ofcompute power, thepotential of 3D AI models and use cases, the future of AI more broadly, andEuropeansovereignty.
On raising funds, Niessner said: “Raising money is still surprisingly easy, actually. There is a lot of money right now. And the reason, I think, is that theopportunity of these models is so massive.You train them once, andtheyjusttrain so incredibly well.”
He said investors were also enticed by the fact that AI model builders can build with relatively small teams, taking advantage of using AI coding agents.
He said: “We also expect to raise a new round this year. We feel there has to be a healthy balance. We need a little bit more for scaling up the models. But we areprobablynot going to raise billions right away, because we think this isyet not justified, butit’s goingto comestep by step.”
Niessner believesthat AImodels,whichcreate 3Dworldsfrom text and image inputs,have a big marketpotential.
He says usecasesspaneverythingfrom video games toroboticsto use in theconstructionand housing industries.
SpAItial has already developed its first 3D AI model and will look forlicencingpartners who will decide how they will leverage the models.
Hesays: “We are kind of like where ChatGPT was for language five years ago.”