Matilda Starts From Scratch

An Australian AI begins at the beginning

Matilda, an Australian AI startup, is leveraging knowledge rather than utilizing the Reddit-tainted training of the current Large Language Models:

Aussie’s Matilda model - A private sector crack at building a homegrown LLM

Maincode, the Sydney-based AI startup, has unveiled “Matilda,” what it hails as the country’s first foundation model built from scratch, and a bold play to ensure Australia’s AI future isn’t decided in Silicon Valley boardrooms.

“We have created Matilda, which is the first from scratch foundation model in Australia,” Maincode CEO and co-founder Dave Lemphers told an industry audience at the Tech Leaders forum in the Hunter Valley on Monday. Maincode is backed by Ed Craven, the founder of online casino and sports betting operator Stake.com.

“I think that it’s important for Australia to participate. Not only is it something we should be creating, it’s something that is good for Australia,” said Lemphers, a software engineer and startup founder who previously worked for Microsoft.

Maincode’s approach, he says, is about building models “done by Australians” and “here in Australia,” while critically maintaining transparency and control over the data and processes involved.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s wholly sourced by information available in Australia,” he explained.

“So part of training Matilda is training Matilda on a number of different sources, both globally and locally. The difference is that it’s not done post-training, so we’re not taking open weights and biases. We’re doing that from first principles. So we’re taking the data in its raw form. We’re curating, filtering through it. We’re selecting exactly what we want from those data sources, and then combining that in the pre-training phase,” he explained.

This is the correct way to go about developing true iAI, because it will cleanse the system of all of the misinformation and disinformation from corrupt sources like Reddit and Wikipedia that currently reduce the performance of Deepseek, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other mainstream AI systems.