Jaan Tallinn
Investor and AI-safety advocate
A Skype co-developer turned investor and AI-safety funder who led Anthropic's Series A and backed DeepMind early.
Biography
Jaan Tallinn is an Estonian computer programmer and investor, known for helping develop Skype and the file-sharing application FastTrack/Kazaa. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1996 with a BSc in theoretical physics.
He is an investor and advocate for AI safety. He was an early investor and board member at DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014, and in 2021 he led the $124 million Series A funding round for Anthropic, an AI safety-focused company. He co-founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the Future of Life Institute, and his main worries concern artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and nanotechnology.
Notable contributions
Led Anthropic's Series A
Led the $124 million Series A funding round for Anthropic in 2021.
Early investor and board member at DeepMind
Was an early investor and board member at DeepMind, later acquired by Google, alongside Elon Musk and Founders Fund.
Co-founded existential-risk institutes
Co-founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge and the Future of Life Institute.