Sentient, supported by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, has introduced Open Deep Search, an open-source AI framework that surpasses Perplexity in its reasoning and search functionalities. This initiative aims to democratize advanced artificial intelligence and stimulate web3 innovation through Sentient Chat, which currently has a waitlist of 1.75 million users.
The decentralized AI developer based in San Francisco revealed its forthcoming Open Deep Search release on April 2. As stated in a press announcement, ODS marks the first open-source AI search platform to exceed the performance benchmarks of Perplexity and Perplexity Sonar Reasoning Pro, including FRAMES and SimpleQA.
The technology was presented to over 1,500 crypto and AI developers at the Open AGI Summit held during ETH Denver. Sentient’s platform features improved multi-step reasoning and effective factual query responses, positioning ODS as a likely game-changer in the AI search industry.
Sentient Labs, the team behind ODS, was established by former Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. The platform secured $85 million in seed funding, led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures, in addition to Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
“The launch of Open Deep Search marks a significant step in our mission to make AI available to everyone,” stated Himanshu Tyagi, co-founder of Sentient. “By open-sourcing a framework that outperforms industry leaders like Perplexity, we challenge closed-source AI developers while providing developers with access to a powerful tool that empowers them to build the applications they have always envisioned.”
Expanding access through Sentient Chat
Open Deep Search will be integrated into Sentient Chat, the company’s AI chatbot designed for consumers. The initial rollout will begin with early testers, followed by weekly feature enhancements leading up to a complete public launch within the next two months.
While the company has less funding compared to larger AI firms, Sentient has developed ODS using decentralized principles and a streamlined budget. They argue that this approach levels the playing field against centralized AI models that are buoyed by vast financial support.
“ODS demonstrates that open-source AI can stand up to closed-source technology in both reasoning architecture and search capabilities,” the company noted in its announcement.