Crypto AI 'four times better' than ChatGPT and Grok raises $15 million

Surf, an artificial intelligence platform said to have superior knowledge of crypto when compared to mainstream brands like ChatGPT, has raised $15 million, according to a Wednesday release.

The company's CEO, Ryan Li, said AI platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity suffer from hallucinations that can cause traders to lose substantial amounts of investment capital, according to Fortune, which first reported on the raise.

Surf's team says its platform "performs four times better than ChatGPT and Grok on crypto tasks," citing testing done in conjunction with Princeton University.

Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group invested in the round.

Surf initially launched as an invite-only before becoming available to the general public in September, the report said. The company said over 300,000 people are using Surf, with more than a million search results. Li said, "80% of the platform’s users are regular people who don’t work in crypto, and the remaining 20% are from venture capital firms, exchanges, and other crypto-affiliated companies."

AI and crypto have been seen by many as complementary technologies, one aiding or safeguarding the other. Crypto traders have also sought to employ AI in order to improve trading results.

Surf already generates revenue from subscription fees and plans on launching a newer version in February.

“ChatGPT is a really good generalist, but it doesn’t know the crypto industry enough,” Li said in the report. “Surf is like that expert that worked in the industry for a long time by us training the model just for crypto.”