Stanhope Secures £2.3m in Funding for Developing AI Capable of Making Human-like Decisions

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Stanhope AI – a company applying decades of neuroscience research to teach machines how to make human-like decisions in the real world – has raised £2.3m in seed funding led by the UCL Technology Fund.

Creator Fund also participated, along with, MMC Ventures, Moonfire Ventures and Rockmount Capital and leading angel investors.

Stanhope AI was founded as a spinout from University College London, supported by UCL Business, by three of the most eminent names in neuroscience and AI research – CEO Professor Rosalyn Moran (former Deputy Director of King’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence), Director Karl Friston, Professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and Technical Advisor Dr Biswa Sengupta (MD of AI and Cloud products at JP Morgan Chase).

Stanhope AI is pioneering in the field of ‘agentic’ artificial intelligence (AI), a new breed of AI technology. By incorporating key principles of neuroscience and mathematics, they have created algorithms that forecast potential future events. These algorithms revise their “internal models of the world” based on the variations between anticipated and actual circumstances. Unlike typical Large Language Models (LLMs) which require extensive training, these agentic AI models are self-reliant learners who decipher their environment and continually reassess their “world models”. This reconstruction is conducted in real-time using data inputs from integral sensors.

The Emergence of Agentic AI

The crux of Stanhope AI’s strategy and technology hinges upon Active Inference, a neuroscience principle. This concept proposes that our brain constantly updates its predictions about surrounding sensory data with the aim of minimizing ‘free energy.’ This approach is unlike conventional machine learning techniques that train existing AI systems such as LLMs. Current methods can only function within the limitations of their training scope and make educated guesses based only on the available data. These models are unable to learn on the go and necessitate extensive resources in terms of processing power, energy, and massive quantities of data for training.

StanHope AI’s Active Inference models are truly autonomous. They continually refine and rebuild their predictions, minimizing uncertainty by default. This removes possible AI hallucinations and brings Stanhope’s models closer to reasoning and human decision-making. Moreover, by significantly reducing the size and power needed for these models, they can be operated on smaller devices like drones.

“The most comprehensive concept since the theory of natural selection”

StanHope AI’s strategy is achievable due to the accumulated research of its founding team on Active Inference and free energy. The Director, Professor Friston, is a globally known neuroscientist at UCL. His work, which has been referred to twice as often as Albert Einstein’s, created the Free Energy Principle Theory.

Professor Friston’s theory focuses on how our brains reduce surprise and uncertainty. It suggests that all living entities are driven to minimize free energy – the energy required to predict and perceive the world. This theory has been dubbed as the “most comprehensive concept since the theory of natural selection”. It encompasses the Active Inference process our brains use to minimize energy. Driven by this idea, Stanhope AI is spearheaded by Professor Moran, an expert in Active Inference and its implementation through AI; and Dr. Sengupta, who studied system dynamics, optimization, and energy efficiency at the University of Cambridge.

Real-world application

In the immediate term, the technology is being tested with delivery drones and autonomous machines used by partners including Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation and the Royal Navy. In the long term, the technology holds huge promise in the realms of manufacturing, industrial robotics and embodied AI. The investment will be used to further the company’s development of its agentic AI models and the practical application of its research. 

Professor Rosalyn Moran, CEO and co-founder of Stanhope AI, said: “Our mission at Stanhope AI is to bridge the gap between neuroscience and artificial intelligence, creating a new generation of AI systems that can think, adapt, and decide like humans. We believe this technology will transform the capabilities of AI and robotics and make them more impactful in real-world scenarios. We trust the math and we’re delighted to have the backing of investors like UCL Technology Fund who deeply understand the science behind this technology and their support will be significant on our journey to revolutionise AI technology.”

David Grimm, partner UCL Technology Fund, said: “AI startups may be some of the hottest investments right now but few have the calibre and deep scientific and technical know-how as the Stanhope AI team. This is emblematic of their unique approach, combining neuroscience insights with advanced AI, which presents a groundbreaking opportunity to advance the field and address some of the most challenging problems in AI today. We can’t wait to see what this team achieves.” 

Marina Santilli, Associate Director at UCL Business, expressed her excitement over the potential of Stanhope AI’s take on Artificial Intelligence. It promises potent yet energy-efficient models. Santilli and UCLB are elated to have supported the establishment of a company that rests on decades of fundamental research at UCL, led by Professor Friston, who developed the Free Energy Principle.

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Tags: decision making, llm

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