Induction Labs (YC S26) — Building intellectually curious AI
We are scaling foundation models that are curious about the world. We’ve seen general intelligence appear exactly once, and its hallmark has been curiosity: a dissatisfaction with what we already know about the world, an ability to learn from world experience, and a disposition to share knowledge with other individuals.
Induction Labs is a Y Combinator company in the Summer 2026 batch. Its directory entry describes it as: Building intellectually curious AI. The founders listed are Jonathan Li (Founder/CEO), David Li (Founder) (Y Combinator directory entry, August 19, 2025).
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Example from a real report (our sample on Target): “Target eliminated approximately 1,800 corporate positions, with around 1,000 employees receiving layoff notices and the remainder accounted for by eliminating open roles.” Source: NBC News
We are scaling foundation models that are curious about the world.
We’ve seen general intelligence appear exactly once, and its hallmark has been curiosity: a dissatisfaction with what we already know about the world, an ability to learn from world experience, and a disposition to share knowledge with other individuals. Across generations, these human traits have built modern science, technology, and culture.
We think superintelligence will come from models that work the same way: learning from their own observation, updating as they go, growing what they know. These models will start from what humanity knows and discover past us.
We believe that scaling curious intelligence is a defining problem of our time. If solved, we will live to see a new era of technological advances, scientific understanding, and human flourishing.
Jonathan Li
Founder/CEO
David Li
Founder
Founders, titles and bios as the company published them. Photographs are our own copies of the ones on that record, so they do not break when the original link expires.
One of 343 companies held here in B2B › Infrastructure.
No investor is drawn from a Form D — the form states how many invested and never who. The one investor on this graph is named because a batch has exactly one.
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Example from a real report (our sample on Target): “Target eliminated approximately 1,800 corporate positions, with around 1,000 employees receiving layoff notices and the remainder accounted for by eliminating open roles.” Source: NBC News
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