{"id":95309,"title":"δ Thesis: Building the frontier of AI discovery","tagline":"Making it possible for researchers anywhere to discover the next Transformer or invent the next AlphaFold.","body":"Thesis is an applied AI lab accelerating the frontier of AI discovery.\n\nWe're making it possible for researchers anywhere to discover the next Transformer or invent the next AlphaFold.\n\n**Mission**\n\nOur mission is to make state-of-the-art AI discovery 10x faster and 10x cheaper. The big labs are racing to get there, but their need to productize and turn a profit has already weighed them down. Thesis embraces rapid experimentation and novel fundamental research. Our singular focus, outcome-driven mindset, and early results give us confidence that we can get there first.\n\n**Results**\n\nThesis is state-of-the-art on OpenAI’s Machine Learning Engineering benchmark ([MLE-Bench](https://github.com/openai/mle-bench?tab=readme-ov-file#mle-bench)).\n\nMLE-Bench tests how well AI systems can train ML models autonomously, a first step toward self-improving systems. We achieved this result in the record time of 1 month and with only $10k in compute. Agents will get you far, but not far enough. Our methods mix old school with new, and have already outperformed teams of researchers at Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Baidu.\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=95309\u0026key=user_uploads/455353/310c8083-1512-40c3-8e31-c1cc941f3634)\n\n**Team**\n\nLuigi and Sergio are brothers. Back in 2021, Sergio [wrote about a future where AI could create its own algorithm](https://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2021spr/report2/82285254.pdf)s. With today's foundation models, that future is suddenly within reach.\n\nSergio worked on AI R\u0026D at Google X, Nvidia, and Stanford’s AI Lab (SAIL). He has published work at NeurIPS and ICML, and has worked with Chelsea Finn and Andrew Ng.\n\nLuigi built Sphere, a fintech company that processes billions of dollars every year in global cross-border payments. Sphere was recently valued at $250 M+ in its Series A round.\n\n**10 Year Vision**\n\nThe holy grail of AI is building self-improving systems that, guided by human creativity, enable breakthroughs and new paradigms achieving state-of-the-art results under resource constraints.\n\nIn the limit, our engine will expand beyond ML to every domain of science, from computational biology, to theoretical mathematics and physics. Thesis will autonomously discover new knowledge and become the driving force behind humanity’s scientific progress.\n\n**Our Ask**\n\nWe collaborate with leading institutions, startups, and independent researchers around the world. If you’re interested in what we’re building, please get in touch: \\[[ask@thesislabs.ai](mailto:ask@thesislabs.ai)\\](mailto:[ask@thesislabs.ai](mailto:ask@thesislabs.ai))","slug":"OnF-thesis-building-the-frontier-of-ai-discovery","created_at":"2025-11-11T16:40:14.609Z","updated_at":"2026-05-14T04:19:16.699Z","total_vote_count":232,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/OnF-thesis-building-the-frontier-of-ai-discovery","share_image_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/media/?type=post\u0026id=95309\u0026key=user_uploads/455353/310c8083-1512-40c3-8e31-c1cc941f3634","company":{"id":30928,"name":"Thesis","slug":"thesis","url":"https://thesislabs.ai","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/834b16b30c5de79bf9dbcd0a4819289bfa937936.png","batch":"Fall 2025","industry":"B2B","tags":["Artificial Intelligence"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/30928"}}