Investors are aggressively courting AI researchers to build startups that can make AI more reliable and efficient.

Yu Su, an Ohio State professor leading an AI agent lab, said he initially resisted the pressure from VCs to commercialize his work. He finally took the leap last year and spun out his work into a startup when he saw that foundational model advances could make agents truly personalized.

NeoCognition, a startup Su describes as a research lab developing self-learning AI agents, has just emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners and angels, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.

“Today’s agents are generalists,” Su (pictured left) told TechCrunch. “Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith.”

According to Su, the issue lies in a lack of consistency. Current agents, whether from Claude Code, OpenClaw or Perplexity’s computer tools, successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of the time, he said.

Since agents are still so unreliable, they are not ready to be trusted, independent workers, Su told TechCrunch. NeoCognition intends to change that by developing an agent system that can self-learn to become an expert in any domain, similar to how humans learn.

Su argues that while human intelligence is broad, its real power is our ability to specialize. When we enter a new environment or profession, we can rapidly master its unique rules, relationships, and consequences.

NeoCognition is building agents to mirror this exact approach.

“For humans, our continued learning process is essentially the process of building a world model for any profession, any environment,” Su said. “We believe for agents to become experts, they need to learn autonomously to build a model of any given micro world.”

Su views this capacity for rapid specialization as the critical missing link to getting AI to work reliably on its own.

While it is possible to train agents for autonomous tasks, they must be custom-engineered for a specific vertical. NeoCognition is different because it’s building agents that are generalists capable of self-learning and specializing in any domain.

NeoCognition intends to sell its agent systems primarily to enterprises, including established SaaS companies, which can use them to build agent-workers or to enhance existing product offerings.

Su highlighted that an investment from Vista Equity Partners is especially valuable for this reason. As one of the largest private equity firms in the software space, Vista can provide NeoCognition with direct access to a vast portfolio of companies looking to modernize their products with AI.

NeoCognition currently has about 15 employees, the majority of whom hold PhDs.

The Nigerian Police Force have paraded a large number of suspects arrested for various criminal activities.

The suspects were paraded before the press in Abuja on Tuesday, having been arrested by operatives of the Special Tactical Squad, STS of the Force Intelligence Department.

This briefing covers selected operations from the First Quarter of 2026, highlighting the first seven major cases handled by the STS across Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, and the Federal Capital Territory.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Anthony Okon Placid, said that within these seven cases, the STS recorded significant successes, including the arrest of multiple high-profile suspects, the recovery of firearms and ammunition, and the disruption of organized criminal networks.

In addition, the Force said that stolen vehicles were recovered, illegal arms supply chains were intercepted while kidnapped victims were rescued.

“These achievements reflect the continued commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to intelligence-led policing and decisive action against criminal elements,” the Force Spokesman said.

Suspects arrested for stollen vehicles include Abubakar Musa, 36 years, Hassan Umar, 30 years, and Joshua Raphael, 20 years and ten vehicles of various brands, including Toyota Hilux trucks, Toyota Corolla cars, a Pontiac Vibe GT, a Honda car, a Lexus vehicle, and a Toyota RAV4 were recovered.

He said that preliminary investigation revealed that Abubakar Musa, a dismissed Corporal of the Nigerian Army, whose last posting was at the Army School of Artillery Kachia Kaduna State, has been impersonating as a serving soldier to evade arrest while perpetrating armed robbery operations alongside his accomplices.

Others arrested are four armed banditry suspects:
Abdumumini Abubakar, 40, Maikano Gambo, 47, Saleh Thompson, 47, and Oyonyi Odango, 40 and arms recovered include four AK-47 rifles with magazines; eighty rounds of 7.62 x 39mm ammunition; one locally fabricated pistol with twenty rounds of 9mm ammunition operatives of the FID-STS, acting on credible intelligence, arrested Abdumumini Abubakar, Maikano Gambo, Saleh Thompson, and Oyonyi Odango on 7th March 2026 in Tayu, Sanga LGA of Kaduna State.

The Police said that preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects are linked to armed robbery and banditry activities within the region.

They also arrested two suspects Abubakar Yusuf, 40, and Sani Abubakar, 30 following a complaint reported of the kidnap of one Sidi Abubakar in Toto, Nasarawa State who was kidnapped over two months ago, operatives of the FID-STS arrested Abubakar Yusuf and Sani Abubakar on 18th March 2026.

It said that preliminary investigation revealed that Abubakar Yusuf and Sani Abubakar were involved in the abduction of one Sidi Abubakar, for whom a ransom of Six Million Naira was demanded.

It said that investigations further revealed that, Abubakar Yusuf had approached the victim’s relative to pay the sum of one million five hundred thousand naira. After having collected the payment, Abubakar Yusuf was nowhere to be found nor was the victim released.

Others paraded for various crimes on Tuesday include, Saminu Abdullahi, 25, Yusuf Shuaibu, 23, Abubakar Bature, 19, Yau Murtala; Bello Suleiman, 19, Abdul Kareem Nuhu, 36, Ahmed Musa, 28, Chisom Goodnews, 32, and Ahmed Adamu, 22.