Rivian elects Cohere’s CEO to its board in newest sign the EV maker is bullish on AI | TechCrunch

Aidan Gomez, the co-founder and CEO of generative AI startup Cohere, has joined the board of EV maker Rivian, according to a regulatory filing. The appointment is the newest signal that Rivian sees guarantees in making use of AI to its personal enterprise whereas positioning itself as a software program chief — and even supplier — throughout the automotive trade.

Rivian elevated the scale of the board and elected Gomez, whose time period will expire in 2026, based on the submitting.

Gomez has had a protracted profession as a knowledge scientist and AI skilled. He launched Cohere in 2019 with co-founders Nick Frosst and Ivan Zhang with a concentrate on coaching AI basis fashions for enterprises. The generative AI startup sells its companies to firms reminiscent of Oracle and Notion.

Previous to beginning Cohere, Gomez was a researcher at Google Mind, the deep studying division at Google led by Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton. Gomez can also be identified for “Consideration Is All You Want,” a 2017 technical paper he co-authored that laid the inspiration for lots of the most succesful generative AI fashions at the moment.

Gomez’s ability set could possibly be notably helpful for Rivian because the EV maker navigates a brand new $5.8 billion three way partnership with Volkswagen Group to develop software program. Below the three way partnership, Rivian will share its electrical structure experience with Volkswagen Group — together with its many manufacturers — and is predicted to license current mental property rights to the three way partnership.

It’s doable the three way partnership will promote its tech to different firms sooner or later.

Rivian has additionally been engaged on an AI assistant for its EVs since 2023, Rivian’s chief software program officer, Wassym Bensaid, informed TechCrunch throughout an interview in March. The AI work, which is particularly on the orchestration layer or framework for an AI assistant, sits outdoors the three way partnership with VW, Bensaid talked about on the time.

Gomez’s experience in AI and as a knowledge scientist is clearly enticing to Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, who
famous in an announcement that his “pondering and experience will assist Rivian as we combine new, cutting-edge applied sciences into our merchandise, companies, and manufacturing.”