Crowdsourced AI-training platform Spare5 rebrands as Mighty AI and raises $14 million from Intel, GV, others

Spare5, a gig economy startup that uses the general public to help train companies' artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, has today relaunched as Mighty AI and announced a $14 million funding round led by Intel Capital, with participation from other new investors GV (Google Ventures) and Accenture Ventures. Existing investors Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) also participated in the round. Founded out of Seattle in 2014, Spare5 has hitherto partnered with big-name companies such as Microsoft, Pinterest, and IBM, among others, who provide the Spare5 community with "tasks" -- these generally focus on identifying the meaning of media assets such as photos, videos, and audio. For example, someone may be presented with a picture of a landscape, and they would have to tell the system what the mountain is, and whether the large body of water it identified is a lake. Moving forward, the company will be known as Mighty AI, and in addition to the funding round, it has signed deals with Intel and Accenture.