Andy Konwinski Is One of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in AI

In June, Andy Konwinski brought together approximately 100 prominent AI researchers and engineers at San Francisco’s Exploratorium to discuss how to prevent the frontier of AI research from stalling. Konwinski believes that entrusting the creation of leading AI models to a select group of private companies concentrates power, presenting significant risks.

He emphasized to the attendees that "the frontier will not close on its own; it closes through a series of decisions." Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness in rural Wisconsin, Konwinski sold Bibles for free until he turned 17. In 2013, he co-founded Databricks, an AI and analytics company worth $190 billion, which he helped develop as a Ph.D. student at Berkeley.

Later, he co-founded AI search company Perplexity. Currently, Konwinski is focused on advancing open science. In 2024, he established Laude Ventures, a $150 million fund supporting technical entrepreneurs, which includes over 50 top computer scientists as investors. By 2025, he allocated $100 million of his personal wealth to launch the Laude Institute, a nonprofit offering grant funding and direct assistance to computer science researchers.

Together, they aim to facilitate scientific discoveries that others can build upon and create successful companies to manage them. Konwinski advocates for the open science community to have a major competitor to challenge OpenAI and Anthropic. One of Laude-backed projects, an AI benchmark called Terminal-Bench, has been utilized by nearly every major lab for evaluating its agents.

In October, the institute will reveal which of its eight "moonshot" projects, covering fields such as healthcare and civic discourse, will receive an additional $10 million in funding. Despite no longer following his previous faith, Konwinski remains driven by the desire to bring people together for a greater purpose. "When the magic happens, I feel small," he reflects.

It's worth noting that TIME has a licensing agreement with Perplexity, and Databricks, where Marc Benioff, co-chair and owner of TIME, serves as CEO.