David Silver's Ineffable Intelligence names six cofounders from DeepMind, InstaDeep and Flying Fish
What's the deal? Ineffable Intelligence, a UK-based AI startup led by former Google DeepMind researcher David SilverDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, has assembled a team of cofounders and hires drawn from DeepMindDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, InstaDeep, and venture firm Flying FishDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company aims to build AI superintelligence using reinforcement learning, the training technique with which Silver is closely associated.
Why now? Ineffable was incorporated in November 2025, and Silver became a director in January 2026 after leaving DeepMind. It joins a wave of "neolabs" — frontier AI startups founded largely by veterans of DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic over the past two years.
What's the endgame? Like its peers, Ineffable's stated mission is to create AI superintelligence. In reinforcement learning, a model learns by trial and error to maximise a reward set by its trainer — actions that earn rewards get reinforced, while others fade, a process loosely akin to operant conditioning in psychology.
Who's on the team? Junhyuk OhDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, who led reinforcement learning on DeepMind's AlphaStar and was among the first to use AI to discover new reinforcement learning algorithms, will run that work at Ineffable. Wojciech CzarneckiDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a DeepMind multi-agent researcher who also worked on AlphaStar, will oversee the science team. Others include Lasse EspeholtDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → on compute and infrastructure, Alexandre LaterreDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → on research engineering, Chris AppsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → as chief research accelerator, and Heather GorhamDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → on compute, fundraising, and operations.
The founder question: Companies House records show Ineffable was set up by George "Geordie" RoseDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Canadian serial entrepreneur, who is now listed as a "founding advisor." A company spokesperson said Rose is a friend of Silver's who helped get the company running before moving into an advisory role, but that Silver does not consider him a "cofounder."
The signal: Ineffable's early hires point to a bet on automating AI research itself. Oh's appointment suggests the company will pursue automated reinforcement learning research to accelerate its quest for superintelligence — echoing an industry-wide push toward "recursive self-improvement," where AI systems optimise future versions of themselves with little human help.
Read more: fortune.com
Image credit: Ineffable Intelligence
