NEWS, LONDON, 25 February 2025: World-renowned computer scientist and author of over 25 books, Dr. Ben Goertzel, Founder and CEO of SingularityNET, CEO of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, and Chair of the OpenCog Foundation, has announced the winners of over $1 million in grants awarded to empower developers to advance Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) for the benefit of humanity.
The 16 winners feature across 18 categories, and talented recipients hail from locations as far afield as Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Argentina, Russia, UK, USA, Portugal and Brazil.
Dr. Goertzel, founder of SingularityNET, the world’s first decentralised AI platform, launched the global search for innovative new R&D projects in benevolent AGI to avoid the serious fallout of a malignant singularity.
SingularityNET, a leader in decentralised AI infrastructure and a founding member of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, created the scheme through SingularityNET’s AI innovation fund DeepFunding for individuals to create AI code designed to work with OpenCog Hyperon, an AGI framework interoperating on SingularityNET’s decentralised AI platform.
Elija Perrier, project co-owner from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia took home one of the largest grants of $80,000 in the Review of Quantum Computing Technologies category and said “Quantum computing offers the potential for unparalleled computational capability and the means of overcoming thermodynamic barriers limiting conventional chips. Thus it is a natural candidate for exploring realisation of AGI. However quantum mechanics represents a fundamentally distinct ontological paradigm compared with its classical counterpart. Understanding the conditions upon which quantum-native AGI may be possible remains uncharted territory. This project aims to explore these frontiers, examining the unique affordances of quantum AGI using the Hyperon framework and identifying the most efficient quantum architectures for doing so.”
UK based Rob Freeman who won $80,000 in the Neuro-symbolic DNN Architectures category said “It's great that SingularityNET is exploring more diverse means of funding truly novel ideas. Research both in universities and large companies has become very siloed. New ideas are filtered through structures of authority dating from feudal times in the case of universities, or short term commercial gain in the case of large companies. Our new global connectivity opens avenues of research and collaboration never before possible. 8 billion people in the world. Who can say what leaps of innovation a broad and inclusive direct search across those 8 billion might not achieve. For me... language models are upside down. Time to fix that!”
Dr. Goertzel explains “When we launched our RFP with $1.25M in grant funding across 14 critical challenge areas, we had a bold vision: to accelerate the development of AGI through our groundbreaking OpenCog Hyperon architecture, the innovative MeTTa programming language, and the SingularityNET platform. The response from the global developer and research community was remarkable.
We were humbled and inspired by the depth, creativity, and technical brilliance of the proposals we received. Developers and researchers from around the world came forward with innovative approaches to solving complex AGI development challenges. Each proposal represented not just a potential technological solution, but a glimpse into the collective human potential to shape the future of artificial intelligence. They are the result of a dedicated, collaborative, inclusive community dedicated to developing beneficial AGI.”
He continues “ the diversity of participants brings unique, global perspectives to our mission, fostering an inclusive approach to solving complex AGI challenges, which has always been one of our core principles. By connecting top talent from around the world with our leading research team, we are creating a collaborative ecosystem that drives progress toward achieving AGI and, ultimately, Artificial Superintelligence.”
Selection Process
DeepFunding’s evaluation process was designed to assess not just the technical strength or individual merit of each proposal, but also how well that proposal leverages SingularityNET’s technologies, its potential for integration, and its contribution to the broader AGI strategy.
Each proposal had a specialized nature, as the proposals were centered around AGI research and the SingularityNET technology stack.
GLOBAL GRANT WINNERS
Utilize LLMs for modeling within MOSES
Patrick Nercessian (USA) Direct the MOSES Evolutionary Exploration via LLMs Awarded $60,000
Framework for evaluating approaches to attention allocation
Dwane van der Sluis (UK) NACE inspired attention evaluation framework Awarded $11,250
Simuli Inc. Dr Rachel St.Clair, PhD (USA) SYNAPSE: Systematic Neural-Symbolic Attn and Eval Awarded $30,000
AGI Related Hardware
Simuli Inc. Dr Rachel St.Clair, PhD (USA)
Design for Cryptocurrency Mining and AI Processing Awarded $80,000
Review of Quantum Computing Technologies
M. T. Bennett (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
From Classical AGI on Quantum HW to Native QAGI Awarded $80,000
Neuro-symbolic DNN Architectures
Rob Freeman Neurosymbolics from Chaos in Language Models Awarded $80,000
Nils Kakoseos Ternary Sheaf Network (Sweden) – Awarded $70,000
Create Corpus for NL-to-MeTTa LLM
Seb Wiechers (The Netherlands) Large MeTTa corpus for LLM fine-tuning Awarded $27,000
Develop a Framework for AGI Motivation Systems
Anna Mikeda Modular Adaptive Goal and Utility System (MAGUS) (Portugal) Awarded $20,000
Gabriel Axel Montes Neurotech Controls for AGI Motivational Framework (USA) Awarded $20,000
Implement Clustering Heuristics in MeTTa
Ramin Barati Unsupervised Learning (The Netherlands) Awarded $15,000
Evolutionary Algorithms for Training Transformers and other DNNs
Patrick Nercessian Evolving DNN Architectures (USA) Awarded $40,000
Develop Interesting Demos in MeTTa
BHouwens Chimera: Evolving Software (USA) Awarded $25,000
PhilipeSantos Procedurally Generated Interactive Experience (São Paulo, Brazil) Awarded $15,000
Bowen Xu MeTTa Demo: Sequence Learning (USA) Awarded $25,000
Robert Haas Knowledge Graph Workflows (Austria) Awarded $25,000
Golang SDK Development for SingularityNET AI Marketplace
maldybaevr Golang SingularityNET SDK (Russia) Awarded $60,000
Development of a Cardano-Based MultiParty Escrow (MPE) System
Manu Gunther TxPipe TxPipe MultiParty Escrow (Argentina) Awarded $36,000
Untapped possibilities of beneficial AGI
This funding was part of SingularityNET’s worldwide movement to develop beneficial, open, and forward-thinking AGI solutions.
The round of RFPs was focused on advancing the Hyperon architecture but also on reinforcing the broader SingularityNET platform to support state-of-the-art AGI research to catalyze a collaborative ecosystem of innovation—bringing together diverse perspectives, cutting-edge research, and transformative ideas.
Dr Ben concludes “The journey toward beneficial artificial intelligence is a collective endeavor. And with each round, we move closer to realizing a vision of AI that is transparent, democratic, and fundamentally aligned with human values. Together, we are pioneering a future where innovation will know no limits, and the collective potential of human creativity will meet the transformative power of artificial intelligence.”
About SingularityNET
SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralised, democratic, inclusive and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). According to Dr. Goertzel, AGI should be independent of any central entity, open to anyone and not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country. The SingularityNET team includes seasoned engineers, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. The core platform and AI teams are further complemented by specialised teams devoted to application areas such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts and entertainment.
For additional information on SingularityNET visit: https://singularitynet.io/
About DeepFunding
DeepFunding is SingularityNET’s decentralised AI innovation fund. The funding program supports AI builders who build innovative solutions that grow and advance the world’s largest decentralised AI marketplace.
DeepFunding believes in the transformative power of artificial intelligence. AI is no longer just a buzzword or a distant promise, it is now a reality – shaping and disrupting industries, solving complex problems, and redefining what’s possible. Deep Funding enables groundbreaking projects and ideas to come to fruition by supporting developers to get their ideas heard and grow through resources, mentorship, and better visibility.
For additional information visit: https://deepfunding.ai/