This post originally appeared on the Hyperbolic Medium blog on June 6th, 2024

Hyperbolic is thrilled to welcome Yi Ma as an advisor to our team. Yi is a world-renowned computer scientist with artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, and computer vision expertise. He is an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science professor at UC Berkeley and the Chair Professor at the Institute of Data Science and Department of Computer Science at the University of Hong Kong.

Ma’s research precedes him, ranking among the world’s most cited researchers in AI and computing. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and is the author of seven influential textbooks, making significant contributions to the field.

Prof. Yi Ma’s recent work on transformer architecture focuses on creating AI models that are both efficient and interpretable. Ma’s innovative transformer design, “CRATE” simplifies complex data into more manageable forms, enhancing processing speed and efficiency. This approach ensures that AI models are not only faster but more transparent and easier to verify, directly addressing the black box problem. Ma emphasizes the importance of transparency in AI, stating, "We'd better understand what we have created; black box is not an option" highlighting the necessity for interpretable AI models.

Prof. Ma founded Engram in 2023 to bridge the gap between his research and industry implementation and advance the state of the art in AI. The company is dedicated to creating a simple, self-consistent, autonomous, intelligent, closed-loop AI system with comprehensive perception and prediction capabilities. Autonomous learning aims to pave the way for artificial general intelligence (AGI) development.

At Hyperbolic, we recognize that the bias in AI models is associated with the black box nature of centralized and non-transparent AI systems developed by major tech companies. Prof. Ma and Engram’s work is on a different track. Still, his expertise in creating transparency in AI models makes him a perfect advisor for us because we share the same mission: to build a future where AI is accessible, trustworthy, transparent, and unbiased. With his advice and potential collaboration with Engram in the future, we aim to enhance the transparency and verifiability of our entire AI services pipeline.

"Hyperbolic Labs is building the Open-Access AI Cloud, helping researchers, startups, and AI teams access the GPU infrastructure they need to build and scale. Their work bridges advanced AI development with more flexible, accessible infrastructure, and I’m excited to support their vision for a more open AI ecosystem."

Prof. Yi MaHead of CS & Chair Professor in AI at HKU & CS Professor at UC Berkeley

His research breakthroughs have given Ma three of the most prestigious academic honors in Computer Science. His credentials include being named an IEEE Fellow in 2013, an ACM Fellow in 2017, and a SIAM Fellow in 2020.

"We’re honored to welcome Professor Yi Ma as an advisor to Hyperbolic. His work across computer vision, machine learning, and AI has shaped how the field thinks about intelligence and efficient systems. As we build infrastructure that gives AI teams faster, more reliable access to compute, his perspective will be invaluable in helping us advance our mission. "

Jasper ZhangCo-Founder & CEO at Hyperbolic

Our mission aligns strongly with Ma’s overall vision for more transparency in AI, and we are convinced his research foundations will be vital in helping us achieve open-access AI for all.

About Hyperbolic

Hyperbolic is the Open-Access AI Cloud, giving researchers, startups, developers, and AI-native companies fast, flexible access to high-performance GPU capacity. The platform helps teams start on demand, scale programmatically, and grow into reserved infrastructure without long waitlists, rigid contracts, or complex procurement cycles.