Yao Shunyu Denies Founding RSI Company, Says He Remains a Google DeepMind Employee

November 3: According to The Paper, Chinese AI scientist Yao Shunyu said on the evening of November 2 that he had not founded a recursive self-improvement (RSI) company as rumored online, stating, "I have not founded a company; I am still a Google DeepMind employee," and that he does not know where the false news came from.

Earlier reports said the project's co-founding team was largely in place, recruiting talent from labs including Google DeepMind, Anthropic and OpenAI, at a valuation of $2 billion.

Yao joined Anthropic in 2024 and joined Google DeepMind as a senior research scientist in September 2025. On October 12, he also publicly denied plans to raise funds in China.