Emerging Crypto AI Company Yupp Secures $33 Million in Seed Funding, with A16z Crypto Taking the Lead
In an innovative move, the crypto-rails-based AI startup Yupp has unveiled the beta version of its AI leaderboard, the Yupp VIBE (Vibe Intelligence BEnchmark) Score. This groundbreaking platform allows users to compare answers from multiple AI models, earn rewards, and provide valuable feedback to help rank AI models based on their performance.
Founded by Pankaj Gupta, Yupp's mission is to advance AI system development by combining community-powered evaluation with blockchain-based incentives. With over 500 AI models available on its platform, Yupp is positioning itself as a pioneer in AI benchmarking and crowd-sourced feedback systems.
The Yupp VIBE Score is a transparent and trustworthy ranking system, with every vote signed and tracked on-chain, contributing to a public leaderboard. This leaderboard showcases which AI models are performing well and which are less reliable, offering an open benchmark for AI model usefulness without hidden grading or mystery evaluation methods.
Users can participate by entering prompts and receiving multiple answers from different AI models. They then compare these answers, pick the best one, and provide quick feedback. For each vote or comparison they make, users earn rewards in the form of credits, which can be converted into traditional currency such as USD or Euro, or rewarded via cryptocurrencies and stablecoins that run on blockchain networks like Base Ethernet L2 and Solana. Payments are facilitated by services like Stripe, PayPal, Coinbase, and via crypto rails for instant, transparent, and borderless payouts.
The overall VIBESCORE of an AI model is determined by factors such as confidence interval, speed, latency, and cost, among others. Yupp aims to provide a comprehensive ranking of AI models based on user feedback and various other factors.
The company, which has raised a $33 million seed round led by A16z crypto, the investment arm of Andreessen Horowitz venture capital, also attracted participation from Coinbase Ventures and multiple angel investors, including Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, Cred CEO Kunal Shah, and Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal.
After building in stealth mode over the past six months following the fundraising closed last year, Yupp is now inviting users to join the beta test of the Yupp VIBE Score. A separate blog post has been published by the company explaining how the leaderboard works. Users can convert their credits to various currencies including USD, Euro, and more than 20 others.
The Yupp VIBE Score is still under development and testing, but it represents a significant step forward in the development of AI benchmarking and crowd-sourced feedback systems. With its unique combination of AI evaluation and crypto incentives, Yupp is poised to revolutionise the way AI models are evaluated and ranked.
- The beta version of Yupp's AI leaderboard, the Yupp VIBE Score, is not only giving users the chance to compare AI model performances, but also to contribute to the development of AI systems by providing feedback and earning rewards through a combination of traditional and cryptocurrencies.
- By offering a transparent and trustworthy ranking system for AI models based on user feedback and various factors like confidence interval, speed, and cost, Yupp aims to redefine the AI model evaluation and ranking process, harnessing the power of community-driven evaluation and blockchain-based incentives.
