Core Viewpoint - Pokee.ai, an AI Agent startup, recently raised approximately $12 million in seed funding to accelerate research and sales efforts, with notable investors including Point72 Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures [5][6]. Group 1: Company Overview - Pokee.ai was founded in October 2022 and currently has only 7 employees. The founder, Zhu Zheqing, previously led the "Applied Reinforcement Learning" department at Meta, where he significantly improved the content recommendation system [7]. - Unlike other startups that use large language models (LLMs) as the "brain" of their agents, Pokee relies on a different reinforcement learning model that does not require extensive context input [7]. Group 2: Technology and Cost Efficiency - The current version of Pokee has been trained on 15,000 tools, allowing it to adapt to new tools without needing additional context [8]. - Using reinforcement learning models is more cost-effective compared to LLMs, which can incur costs of several dollars per task due to high computational demands. Pokee's task completion cost is only about 1/10 of its competitors [8]. Group 3: Market Strategy and Product Development - Pokee aims to optimize its ability to call data interfaces (APIs) across various platforms, targeting large companies and professional consumers to facilitate cross-platform tasks [9]. - The funding will also support the integration of new features, including a memory function to better understand client needs and preferences [9]. Group 4: Seed Funding Trends - The seed funding landscape for AI startups is evolving, with average seed round sizes increasing significantly. In 2020, the median seed round was around $1.7 million, which has risen to approximately $3 million in 2023 [10]. - The high costs associated with AI product development necessitate larger funding rounds to sustain operations, with some companies reportedly burning through $100 million to $150 million annually [13][14]. Group 5: Investment Climate - Investors are becoming more cautious, requiring solid product-market fit (PMF) before committing to funding. The median time between seed and Series A funding has increased to 25 months, the highest in a decade [17][18].

可能是更高效、更便宜的 Agent 实现路径。 文 丨 孙海宁 编辑 丨 程曼祺 主流 AI Agent 都把大语言模型（LLM，或者它的多模态版本）当作 "大脑"，靠一个或几个 LLM 编 排工作、调用工具。但也有另一条路：Agent 规划、作业靠不依赖自然语言的强化学习模型，LLM 只 充当 Agent 和人类的 "交互层"。 不一样的想法，来自去年 10 月成立，至今只有 4 个正式员工的 Pokee.ai。 Pokee.ai 创始人朱哲清有十余年强化学习研究、落地经验。2017 年起，从杜克大学计算机科学专业毕 业的朱哲清，一边在斯坦福大学攻读强化学习方向博士学位，师从 Benjamin Van Roy；一边在 Meta 工作，曾任 Meta"应用强化学习" 部门负责人，他用强化学习算法改善内容推荐系统，把上任前只剩 3 人，一度要关停的部门扩张至 10 余人，为 Meta 增收 5 亿美元。 靠 LLM 规划、决策，是个自然而主流的想法。OpenAI Operator 和网页交互、操作电脑的能力基于 GPT-4o 模型，Manus 完成任务则是靠 Claude 3.5 Sonnet 模型做长程规划。 ...