François Chollet, a renowned AI researcher, is starting a new venture named Ndea, focused on building cutting-edge AI systems with innovative designs. The startup will function as an AI research and science lab, aiming to develop and operationalize Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) — AI that can perform any task a human can.
“We’re betting on a different path to build AI capable of true invention, adaptation, and innovation,” Chollet shared in a series of posts on X. “We believe we have a small but real chance of achieving a breakthrough — creating AI that can learn at least as efficiently as people and keep improving without bottlenecks.”
Ndea plans to leverage program synthesis, a technique allowing AI to generalize problems from limited examples, alongside other technical approaches to unlock AGI’s potential. While program synthesis is traditionally computing-intensive, Chollet believes overcoming these challenges could accelerate scientific progress.
“We are not alone in recognizing the potential of program synthesis — it’s a technique every frontier AI lab is now starting to explore,” a blog post on Ndea’s website reads. “We are at the crest of a pivotal moment in scientific history, and the world deserves every possible direct and unique attempt to build AGI.”
Chollet is co-founding Ndea with Mike Knoop, co-founder of Zapier and its head of AI. While Ndea hasn’t disclosed whether it has raised external funding, the company is hiring for remote research roles, indicating some financial backing. Knoop is stepping away from daily operations at Zapier but will remain on its board.
“We’re assembling the world’s top program synthesis team,” Knoop wrote on X. “Our focus is on deep learning-guided program synthesis to create AGI that can invent, adapt, and innovate. But more exciting is the chance to metaphorically time-travel: learn, invent, and discover things that wouldn’t happen naturally for decades or centuries.”
Chollet, creator of the popular AI library Keras, left Google last November after nearly a decade. His work joins a growing trend of high-profile researchers leaving Big Tech to pursue independent ventures. Notable examples include OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and Stanford’s Fei-Fei Li, who are leading their own AI initiatives.
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