Scott Wu is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cognition Labs, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based in Silicon Valley. This startup, which did not exist as an official corporation until six months ago, has the whole technological community in a grapple.
Cognition AI claims to have made the world’s first AI software engineer, Devin. Devin works better than the prominent large language models (LLMs) like Gemini, Claude, and GPT-4. Devin was able to resolve 13.86% of open issues on Github, compared to 4.8% for Anthropic’s Claude and 1.8% for GPT-4.
Yeah, you read it right, this AI software engineer can complete entire websites and software programs by itself, all it needs is a text prompt. You could ask Devin to create a website to promote your local grocery and it will do just that. Without any extra input. It is fascinating, isn’t it? But what’s more intriguing than Devin is its developers.
Scott Wu’s Net Worth
Unfortunately, as of today, we do not have any credible information available on Scott Wu’s net worth. However, Devin is turning out to be a cutting-edge tech; Cognition AI is gaining some serious backing from top investors, and it is expected that the wealth of the startup’s co-founders, though not known at the moment, will grow fast.
Education
Scott Wu and his brother Neal Wu have been participating in coding competitions since they were teens and have won most of them. Like Scott, Neal is also a genius who has worked with major search businesses such as Facebook and Google Brain. We found a Reddit post of a young Scott Wu in a Mathlete where he answered faster than most people could read the questions.
Wu has been participating in and winning competitions on platforms such as Codeforces. He is kind of a legend in the competitive programming field and has earned the moniker “legendary grandmaster.”
Scott went to Harvard University, where he studied economics.
Career
Scott Wu has a diverse professional background. He began as a Software Engineer at Addepar in 2014.
Three years later, he then co-founded Lunchclub, an artificial intelligence superconnector that enabled introductions for 1:1 video meetings. He served as the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer for five years and one month. Lunchclub was backed by top venture capital firms such as Lightspeed, Coatue, and a16z. In this role, he played a key role in the company’s development, overseeing technological advancements and contributing to its growth and success in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Currently, Scott holds the position of Co-Founder and CEO at Cognition, a role he has held since November 2023. In this capacity, he leads the company with strategic vision and innovation. Scott Wu feels that Cognition Labs’ knowledge and expertise provide a competitive advantage. He wants to turn his team’s knowledge and talents into an AI system that can transform coding and reasoning. This young company had raised $21 million in funding from PayPal’s and Palantir’s founder Peter Thiel and other investors, including former Twitter executive Elad Gil.
Recently, the AI startup has been in talks with investors for a $2 billion valuation. The startup raised $21 million in a deal valuing it at $350 million, then turned down offers valuing it at $1 billion. If Cognition Labs completes its current round with a $2 billion valuation, its valuation will have increased sixfold in just weeks. Other artificial intelligence startups, like Perplexity and Mistral, have secured funding of $1 billion and $2 billion, respectively. As competition in the AI market continues to intensify, securing funding at a higher valuation will be crucial for Cognition Labs to stay ahead of its competitors.
Then, Carl Brown, a well-known indie developer from Austin, Texas, called out Cognition in his viral video “Debunking Devin.” He claimed the company exaggerated Devin’s abilities, showing that the AI took much longer than a human to finish tasks and made mistakes along the way.
These experiences have raised doubts about whether Devin is just another overhyped AI tool. Engineer Krish Maniar from Labelbox said Devin’s UI designs were dull, and several startup founders told Forbes they believe Cognition has oversold the tool. According to them, Devin isn’t ready to build anything from scratch—it’s better suited for basic, predefined tasks like cleaning up existing code.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is Cognition Labs?
Cognition Labs is an AI startup founded by Scott Wu, Steven Hao, and Walden Yan, who studied at Harvard University. It has developed the world’s first AI software engineer that can create websites and software programs on its own.
Who is Scott Wu?
Scott Wu is a coder who co-founded Cognition AI Labs, the startup behind Devin, the world’s first fully developed AI software engineer.
Source: Tech Chilli / Digpu NewsTex