Freeplay wants to help companies test and build LLM-powered apps
Summary
Freeplay, a startup that lets companies build, experiment with and test apps powered by generative AI models, specifically text-generating models, today emerged from stealth with $3.25 million in a seed round co-led by Conviction Ventures and Matchstick Ventures.Founded by ex-Twitter employees, including the former heads of product and engineering for Twitters developer platform and enterprise data business, Freeplay aims to give product dev teams tools to prototype and improve the software features powered by large language models models akin to ChatGPT or Metas Llama 2.For seasoned product dev teams who might be new to AI, we provide a tool suite that helps them adopt best practices, Ian Cairns, Freeplays co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch in an email interview. Freeplay also hosts tools to help identify and implement custom evaluations of LLMs, leveraging what Cairns calls auto-evaluators (automated testing tools powered by LLMs) combined with human labeling workflows.We help customers build a feedback loop to optimize their LLM evaluations, Cairns said. For example, accountants might need to review outputs for an AI accounting feature, or doctors and scientists might need to review outputs for biotech or healthcare applications This helps [companies] build a high-quality data set that becomes an asset to further optimize the customer experience and cut costs, including by fine-tuning LLMs.But what sets Freeplay apart from the growing collection of tools on the market to build and benchmark AI-powered apps?Theres generative-AI-focused observability platforms like Helicone, plus platforms for tracking and sharing prompts such as PromptLayer and LangSmith. But he claims that most vendors focus on a narrow slice of functionality and target individual developers, or focus on experienced machine learning and data science teams at the expense of organizations with a range of talents and backgrounds.Our end-to-end toolset helps teams get from prototype to production with confidence and then optimize the customer experience over time, Cairns said. With the cash from the seed round, Freeplay plans to grow its 10-person workforce to around 12 to 15 by the end of the year and bring the core product to market, Cairns says.