Peter Thiel-backed Sentient to launch Open Deep Search 

The decentralized AI firm designed ODS to be owned by the community in an effort to promote more decentralized AI

article-image

Sentient and Nobody_man/Shutterstock with Adobe, modified by Blockworks

share

AI firm Sentient Labs, founded by Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, is preparing to launch Open Deep Search (ODS), a new framework designed to rival closed-source AI search products such as Perplexity.

ODS aims to boost Sentient Chat’s capabilities, with Sentient co-founder Himanshu Tyagi telling Blockworks that the “goal is to have all these different agents which are building on our models to be integrated there.”

Loading Tweet..

It’s currently limited to select testers, though a full public release is expected in the next few months.

Sentient Chat is the platform in which users can “​​experience not only our models, but all the applications built on model collecting.” 

“That’s why we have both these things going, but our value proposition is just models. So our claim is that even though great models … may come, we are in a sort of age of abundance for the next one to two years, especially because of this very interesting geopolitical play.”

The team designed ODS to be owned by the community, which means it can be modified and allows developers to “build domain-specific plug-ins, private search agents and alternative reward mechanisms,” the press release added. 

Sentient is focused on building “loyal” AI models, such as its flagship model Dobby.

When scored against a benchmark called FRAMES, Sentient’s accuracy was higher than both Perplexity’s Sonar Reasoning Pro and GPT-4o Search Preview, according to a press release. 

The team wants to make AI more accessible across the board through decentralization. Tyagi told Blockworks that he’s “absolutely” bullish on the intersection of AI and crypto. 

“Open-sourcing a framework that outperforms industry leaders like Perplexity throws down the gauntlet to closed-source AI developers while giving developers access to a powerful primitive that frees them to create the applications they’ve always dreamed of,” Tyagi said.

Decentralization is key, he added, because it’s hard to know what centralized entities are missing in terms of data. 

“I am very bullish on decentralizing data sources itself” because it solves the problem, he explained. 

While some have compared Sentient to Perplexity, Tyagi dismissed this, saying Sentient doesn’t have a direct competitor. Rather, he says the team is more focused on building models.

Currently, there’s a waitlist of nearly two million for Sentient Chat, and roughly 700,000 users of its loyal AI model Dobby.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).jpg

Research

Jupiter has emerged as the undisputed liquidity backbone of Solana, commanding over 90% of spot DEX aggregation and 80% of perp trading volume. But behind the numbers lies a far more ambitious play: a cross-chain, vertically integrated super-app spanning swaps, synthetics, NFTs, memecoins, and launchpads. This report explores Jupiter’s rapid rise, the monetization upgrades reshaping its revenue profile, and the risks that could unwind its dominance, from token dilution to competition. With annualized revenues nearing $300M, the upside is undeniable, if it can navigate the turbulence.

article-image

In recent weeks, Helium has hit new all-time highs while passing major protocol milestones

article-image

Financial advisers in a January survey said equity ETFs were their top choice for gaining crypto exposure in 2025

article-image

“Why put a target out there that’s really speculative, not knowing exactly where this environment is going to go?” CarMax CEO Bill Nash said

article-image

While the head of Base may support legal sex work, Coinbase policies prohibit said workers from using its exchange.

article-image

EVM bottlenecks fundamentally hold back Ethereum’s scalability

article-image

In 2011, WikiLeaks faced a financial blockade imposed by the US government. It was Bitcoin’s first major test.