Mario Garcés and his team design, from the Benasque Valley, an Artificial General Intelligence or AGI in which they barely work fifty companies in the world.
The race for artificial intelligence has ignited a fierce competition among the world's leading tech companies, with billion-dollar investments aimed at developing the most advanced tools. Recently, the emergence of China's DeepSeek has disrupted the landscape, introducing cost-effective and efficient technology that has unsettled major multinational corporations worldwide.
Amid this battle, a startup from the Aragonese Pyrenees seeks to establish itself alongside DeepSeek and ChatGPT. 'The MindKind' is a small company based in the Benasque Valley that has been designing a new model of general AI for five years, aspiring to develop a pre-commercial prototype, contingent upon securing the necessary funding to hire additional developers.
Their approach focuses on a type of AI that is distinct yet complementary to generative models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek. This is known as general AI, a field pursued by approximately fifty companies worldwide, with only a couple based in Europe. "If you want to learn kung fu, even without prior training, you can do so with time and dedication. That's what we're developing. It's considered the holy grail of AI," explained Mario Garcés, CEO of 'The MindKind'.
Currently, generative AI relies on complex statistical models that identify data correlations to generate languages like those used by ChatGPT or DeepSeek. However, these models have limitations, such as the lack of cognitive ability, meaning they cannot learn. "This is what hasn't been achieved yet and is known as general AI, which will complement—rather than completely replace—what generative AI cannot do but humans can," Garcés detailed.
To achieve this, Garcés and his team possess a unique advantage over large multinationals: knowledge. "Technologically, we have nothing to envy. They don't know how to do it. It's an architectural issue. Progress in general AI won't happen without an architectural approach that mirrors what our brain does. And we have that knowledge, which comes from understanding how the brain works," he noted.
The Origin of 'The MindKind' in Neuroscience Research
The story of 'The MindKind' stems from neuroscience research conducted by Mario Garcés himself. At 24, he founded a software company that he sold in 2003. During the economic crisis, he decided to invest his earnings into his research, partially publishing his findings in 2019, while keeping the most strategic aspects under industrial secrecy.
At that time, the AI field began to gain momentum, and he decided to apply his research to make a qualitative leap toward general AI. In 2020, thanks to an initial grant from ITA, he designed a prototype that demonstrated the scientific and technical approach was "solid" and "completely different from what was being done."
In March 2022, he assembled a junior team to design the technology, funded by public financing. "We've secured Next Generation funds, public-private collaboration from the Ministry of Science, and we're in phase 2 of the most significant European grant for tech startups. We've requested 7 million euros in grants and investments. This should carry us through the final two years of technological development to reach the market," he added.
A portion of this necessary investment will be allocated to hiring senior profiles, whom he has already selected, pending the ability to meet their compensation expectations. "These are individuals with 40 years of experience who have been leaders in their field," Garcés elaborated.
Why Huesca?
Although Garcés hails from Madrid, he chose the province of Huesca as the ideal place to develop this new AI. He arrived in the Benasque Valley to establish a Human Resources consultancy in a rural hotel, which ultimately didn't launch due to the economic crisis. Afterward, he decided to reside in the Pyrenees, an "exceptional place for intellectual work."
