In the past two years, the wave of artificial intelligence has swept the world, and one of the brightest new stars is none other than the dark side of the large model company Moon and its founder Yang Zhilin. The company, which has only been established for one year, has soared to a valuation of 18 billion, and its product KIMI has topped the list of domestic chatbot visits. And the driving force behind all this is Yang Zhilin, who is known as "the first person of China's post-90s generation in a large model". What is there about him that can make the dark side of the moon emerge and become a popular fried chicken in the AI world?
Yang Zhilin was born in Shantou, Guangdong Province in 1993. His parents' enlightened educational philosophy cultivated his curiosity about new things. When he was in high school, he came into contact with programming by chance, and won the first prize in the informatics competition in Guangdong within a year with his talent, and was escorted by Tsinghua University. During his university years, under the guidance of his supervisor Tang Jie, he frequently published papers in top international journals. In the end, he graduated with perfect marks and the first grade in his grade, and went straight to Carnegie Mellon University for a doctorate.
During his time in the United States, Yang Zhilin studied under Apple's head of AI research and Google's chief scientist, completed 6 years of study in 4 years, and cooperated with many Turing Award winners to publish core papers in the field of large language models. After returning to China, he successively participated in the research and development of well-known large models such as Google, Pangu, and Wudao, and was known as a leader in the industry. In 2023, he founded the Dark Side of the Moon, and in just half a year, he launched KIMI, which can input 200,000 words, setting a new record for the length of contextual input for global large models.
For a time, the dark side of the moon and KIMI became famous. In March this year, the Internet had swiped the screen "Kimi concept stocks skyrocketed", and in April, the number of KIMI visits reached 20.04 million, surpassing the previous champion and reaching the top of domestic chatbots. The dark side of the moon was also frantically sought after by capital, and the valuation soared to 18 billion within half a year. And all this is inseparable from the aura blessing of Yang Zhilin, the "AI dream maker".
However, "there are many people who are popular". Just when the dark side of the moon was in full swing, some media broke the news that Yang Zhilin had cashed out $40 million, and there were different opinions for a while. Some people question the unreasonableness of start-up founders' frequent cash-outs, but others say that as long as the company's development and the interests of the team are not affected, there is nothing wrong with cashing out small amounts. In this regard, the dark side of the moon denied it, but emphasized that the employee option repurchase plan will be launched in due course. Zhang Ying and other bigwigs also spoke out for Yang Zhilin, believing that reasonable cashing out is conducive to the basic living security of the entrepreneurial team.
Yang Zhilin and the dark side of the moon are undoubtedly the brightest stars of the AI track in recent times, but the rapid valuation growth and the huge cash-out of the founders have also raised questions about their sustainability. AI dreams are important, but whether there is solid business logic and implementation ability behind the dream is the key to determining the survival of an enterprise. As Yang Zhilin said, the large model is like a forest, and it needs to be built with perseverance to build the foundation before it can grow into a towering tree. What do you think of the phenomenon of Yang Zhilin and the dark side of the moon? How should startups balance valuation, profits, and long-term growth? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.