Yao Shunyu Denies Founding AI Company: Currently Still an Employee at Google DeepMind

On November 3, citing The Paper, Yao Shunyu, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, explicitly denied online rumors that he was preparing to found an AI startup focused on recursive self-improvement (RSI) with a project valuation of up to $2 billion, stating, “I have not founded a company and am still an employee at Google DeepMind,” and adding that he had no idea where the rumors originated.

Earlier reports indicated that Yao Shunyu’s founding team had largely taken shape and planned to attract research and engineering talent from leading AI labs such as Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and OpenAI.

This was not the first time Yao Shunyu had addressed startup rumors. On October 12, he publicly stated that he currently has no plans to raise funds in China, and called on others not to waste time on the rumors.