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 AnthropicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → 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
