Why we invested in Sahara, a decentralized AI network that transforms how knowledge is owned, shared, and monetized globally
Trust is a huge concern in the AI industry due to the black-box nature of Generative AI models, which makes it difficult to understand and regulate their decision-making. What’s more, the development process for large models often requires data access to be highly centralized, resulting in reluctance by data owners to contribute their data to model training. Addressing these challenges is crucial for fostering widespread adoption and ensuring ethical and reliable use of AI.
Sahara’s decentralized AI network enables individuals and businesses to monetize their proprietary knowledge by leveraging personalized AI agents (called Knowledge Agents)—all while preserving data privacy.
We initially decided to partner with Sahara while the team was developing a blockchain protocol for decentralized crowdsourcing of human labor for AI model training, starting with data labeling for reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF). We believe that organizations will rely on use case-specific data to improve AI model performance and efficiency, meaning that data annotation by humans will continue to be important for AI adoption. Sahara’s decentralized approach allows for a flexible workforce which can tackle highly specialized tasks on demand.
Today, Sahara is transforming human-AI collaboration with a blockchain-based network that democratizes access to global knowledge capital. Sahara’s Knowledge Agents preserve the sovereignty of data owners and users while autonomously analyzing internal and external data to offer reliable decision-making. Meanwhile Sahara Data, the company’s data infrastructure offering, provides services around AI model training including data annotation.
We’re thrilled to support Sahara, as their unique integration of AI and blockchain technologies not only sets a new benchmark in the tech landscape but also opens up vast opportunities for creators and businesses worldwide. Sahara’s commitment to privacy, security, and user empowerment aligns with our vision of a more equitable digital future, and we’re excited to support their journey in reshaping the landscape of knowledge ownership and monetization.
Sahara’s founders, Xiang (Sean) Ren and Tyler Zhou, possess complementary expertise in AI and blockchain. Ren, currently an Associate Professor in Computer Science and Viterbi Early Career Chair at USC, is the Principal Investigator of USC’s Intelligence and Knowledge Discovery Lab. Zhou, a former Investment Director at Binance Labs and investor at Gaw Capital, contributes extensive knowledge of the blockchain ecosystem and strong financial acumen to the team.
Since its inception, Sahara has attracted over 30 enterprise clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to unicorn startups, including Microsoft, Snapchat, and MIT. We’re thrilled to find out what’s next for the team.
Diane Choi is an investor at Samsung Next. Samsung Next’s investment strategy is limited to its own views and does not reflect the vision or strategy of any other Samsung business unit, including, but not limited to, Samsung Electronics.