Big news from the dark horse of artificial intelligence!
According to The Paper, Dark Side of the Moon founder Yang Zhilin and co-founder and CTO Zhang Yutao were brought to arbitration in Hong Kong, China, by investors from the company’s circular intelligence period. The relevant electronic arbitration application has also been submitted to HKIAC (Hong Kong International Arbitration Center).
This afternoon, Dark Side of the Moon staff confirmed to Brokerage China reporters that the company has entrusted Mingde Law Firm to handle the response, and Mingde Law Firm will file a defense in accordance with the law. Lawyer David Morrison, senior partner of Mingde Law Firm, said: "We believe that this matter lacks both legal basis and factual basis. Our firm will file a defense in accordance with the law."
Another company, Kunlun Wanwei, which has a large presence in artificial intelligence, also has news. The company announced on its official Weibo that Yan Shuicheng will no longer serve as the director of the 2050 Global Research Institute and will be appointed as an honorary consultant to Kunlun Wanwei, continuing to provide valuable guidance for the company's development in the field of artificial intelligence research.
Dark Side of the Moon founder Yang Zhilin indicted
It is reported that Dark Side of the Moon founder Yang Zhilin and co-founder and CTO Zhang Yutao were recently filed for arbitration in Hong Kong, China by investors from the company's circular intelligence period. The relevant electronic arbitration application has also been submitted to HKIAC (Hong Kong International Arbitration Center).
Waves, a public account owned by 36Kr, reported that according to insiders, the applicants for this arbitration are from Circular Intelligence and 5 of the 7 investors of Circular Intelligence: Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Jingya Capital, Boyu Capital , Huashan Capital and Wanwu Capital.
Circular Intelligence is the company where Yang Zhilin and Zhang Yutao worked before starting this business. The company was founded in 2016 and is an AI software provider for enterprise marketing customer service. Industry insiders who are familiar with the early history of Circular Intelligence told "Undercurrent Waves" that in addition to Yang Zhilin and Zhang Yutao, Circular Intelligence also has another co-founder, Chen Qicong.
This arbitration application may have arisen from the fact that Yang Zhilin, Zhang Yutao and others had not received the consent and exemption letters from several investors of Circular Intelligence (Jinshajiang Venture Capital, Wanwu Capital, Jingya Capital, Huashan Capital and Boyu Capital). has started financing and founded Dark Side of the Moon.
The Dark Side of the Moon responded that Mingde Law Firm had accepted the entrustment of Yang Zhilin and Zhang Yutao and paid attention to relevant arbitration matters. Lawyer David Morrison, senior partner of Mingde Law Firm, said: "We believe that this matter lacks both legal basis and factual basis. Our firm will file a defense in accordance with the law."
Dark Side of the Moon is valued at over $3 billion
Yang Zhilin, the founder of Dark Side of the Moon, once revealed in an interview that the company will start to focus on the first round of financing in February 2023. If it is delayed to April, there will be basically no chance, but if it is done in December 2022 or January 2023 There was no chance. There was an epidemic at the time and everyone didn't react - so the real window was only one month.
"At that time, one night in the United States, I made a precise calculation. After calculation, I felt that I would have to get at least 100 million US dollars within a few months. Many people in the market have not started financing, and many people think that you may not be able to raise such funds. It’s a lot of money. But it turned out to be yes, even more than this,” Yang Zhilin said.
According to the official website, Moonshot AI was founded in March 2023 and is committed to seeking the optimal solution for converting energy into intelligence and co-creating intelligence with users through products. In October 2023, it launched a mobile phone that supports input of 200,000 Chinese characters. The smart assistant product Kimi has become popular on the Internet.
Yang Zhilin, the founder of the company, graduated from Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree. He studied under Tang Jie, leader of the Knowledge Engineering Laboratory of the Computer Department of Tsinghua University and a top expert in data mining. He later obtained a doctorate in computer science from CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) under the tutelage of Tang Jie. Ruslan Salakhutdinov, head of AI at Apple and one of the founders of deep learning, once worked for Facebook AI Research Institute and Google Brain Research Institute; co-founder and CTO Zhang Yutao both studied in the Computer Science Department of Tsinghua University and received a PhD in Computer Science from Tsinghua University. He also studied under Tang Jie, who is Yang Zhilin's fellow student.
In June 2023, Dark Side of the Moon received over US$200 million in angel round financing, with a post-money valuation of approximately US$300 million. In February 2024, Dark Side of the Moon received over US$1 billion in Series A+ financing from investors such as Sequoia China, Xiaohongshu, and Alibaba, with a valuation of US$2.5 billion; in August, it was reported that Dark Side of the Moon A new round of financing of over US$300 million was completed. Tencent participated in this round of investment, and the company's valuation rose to US$3.3 billion.
Kunlun Wanwei also has something going on
Kunlun Wanwei, a company with a large presence in artificial intelligence, has also made adjustments in personnel. According to the company’s announcement on its official Weibo account, important personnel adjustments have been made to the 2050 Global Research Institute: Yan Shuicheng will no longer serve as the director of the 2050 Global Research Institute and will be appointed as an honorary consultant to Kunlun Wanwei, which will continue to provide valuable insights into the company’s development in the field of artificial intelligence research. guidance.
In September 2023, Kunlun Worldwide 2050 Global Research Institute was officially established, and Yan Shuicheng, the world's top AI expert, was invited to serve as the first director. In the past year, Yan Shuicheng built the 2050 Global Research Institute from 0 to 1, and conducted in-depth research around the next generation model architecture and Agent. Through cooperation with many universities at home and abroad, and exploration in the cutting-edge field of artificial intelligence , has had a positive impact in both academia and industry, and has brought a good reputation to the development of Kunlun Wanwei's artificial intelligence business.
The company said that in the future, Yan Shuicheng will serve as an honorary advisor to Kunlun Wanwei Group and continue to provide valuable guidance for the company's development in the field of artificial intelligence. The new director of the 2050 Global Research Institute will be officially announced soon. The team is currently committed to cutting-edge research on large models and project implementation. The current AIGC environment has shifted from basic research and development to application implementation.
In 2024, Kunlun Wanwei has achieved remarkable development in the three major dimensions of base model iteration, AI application development, and commercial realization. At present, Kunlun Wanwei has built a diverse AI business matrix such as AI large models, AI music, AI search, AI games, AI social networking, and AI short plays, and has completed the entire "computing infrastructure-large model algorithms-AI applications" Industrial chain layout.
Kunlun Wanwei announced that its AI short drama platform SkyReels will be officially launched in the United States on December 10. This marks Kunlun Wanwei’s further expansion in the global AI entertainment market. On August 19 this year, Kunlun Wanwei released SkyReels, the world’s first AI short drama platform that integrates video large models and 3D large models. The SkyReels platform integrates Kunlun Wanwei's self-developed script large model SkyScript, self-developed storyboard large model StoryboardGen, self-developed 3D generation large model Sky3DGen, and the industry's first innovative platform WorldEngine that deeply integrates AI3D engines and video large models. The company's stock price jumped today.
From an industry perspective, it is reported that the China Artificial Intelligence Industry Development Alliance is scheduled to hold its 13th plenary meeting in Beijing on November 12, 2024. At this plenary session, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology will join forces with multiple units to jointly release large model benchmark test results, and simultaneously release benchmark test standards and data sets.