FutureHouse

FutureHouse is an American nonprofit artificial intelligence research organization headquartered in San Francisco, founded in September 2023 by Sam Rodriques (former MIT McGovern Institute researcher) and Andrew White (University of Rochester chemistry professor), with backing from Eric Schmidt and Schmidt Sciences. The organization's stated mission is to build autonomous AI scientists for biology research, with emphasis on autonomous experimental design, scientific reasoning, and other AI-for-science applications. As of April 2026, FutureHouse is one of the principal AI-for-science nonprofit research organizations, with published research output including the PaperQA and Crow autonomous-research-agent systems.

At a glance

• Founded: September 2023 in San Francisco by Sam Rodriques and Andrew White.
• Status: Nonprofit research organization. Eric Schmidt and Schmidt Sciences backing.
• Funding: Eric Schmidt personal commitment and Schmidt Sciences funding. Specific cumulative funding not publicly disclosed.
• CEO: Sam Rodriques, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Former MIT McGovern Institute researcher.
• Other notable leadership: Andrew White, Co-Founder. University of Rochester chemistry professor.
• Open weights: Yes, partial. Selected research outputs released open-source through GitHub.
• Flagship outputs: PaperQA (autonomous scientific-paper question-answering system), Crow (autonomous research agent), Phoenix (autonomous chemistry-experiment design), and continued AI-for-science research output.

Origins

FutureHouse was founded in September 2023 by Sam Rodriques and Andrew White with backing from Eric Schmidt and Schmidt Sciences. The founding thesis was explicitly oriented around building autonomous AI scientists for biology research, with emphasis on automating the scientific process from hypothesis generation through experimental design, execution, and analysis.

The 2023 to 2024 founding period built initial research infrastructure including the PaperQA autonomous scientific-paper question-answering system. The 2024 to 2026 period has continued published research output including Crow (autonomous research agent), Phoenix (autonomous chemistry-experiment design), and other AI-for-science research lines.

Mission and strategy

FutureHouse's mission is to build autonomous AI scientists for biology research, with emphasis on autonomous experimental design, scientific reasoning, and other AI-for-science applications. The strategy combines two threads. First, autonomous-research-agent systems including PaperQA, Crow, Phoenix, and other variants. Second, published research output across AI-for-science applications.

The competitive premise reflects FutureHouse's distinct positioning as a nonprofit AI-for-science research organization with Schmidt-affiliated funding, distinguishing the organization from peer commercial AI-for-science startups.

Distribution channels include open-research publication, open-source code releases through GitHub, and cross-institution research-cooperation.

Models and products

• PaperQA. Autonomous scientific-paper question-answering system. Open-source.
• Crow. Autonomous research agent.
• Phoenix. Autonomous chemistry-experiment design system.
• Continued AI-for-science research. Published research output.

Distribution channels include open-research publication and open-source code releases through GitHub.

Benchmarks and standing

FutureHouse's evaluation framework focuses on autonomous-research-agent benchmarks including paper-question-answering accuracy, autonomous-experiment-design quality, and published research output. PaperQA has been characterized in AI-for-science industry coverage as one of the principal autonomous scientific-paper question-answering systems globally.

Leadership

As of April 2026, FutureHouse's senior leadership includes:

• Sam Rodriques, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Former MIT McGovern Institute researcher.
• Andrew White, Co-Founder. University of Rochester chemistry professor.
• Senior research staff across the organization's principal research areas.

Funding and backers

Eric Schmidt personal commitment and Schmidt Sciences funding. Specific cumulative funding not publicly disclosed.

Industry position

FutureHouse occupies a distinctive position as one of the principal nonprofit AI-for-science research organizations, with Schmidt-affiliated backing, the PaperQA, Crow, and Phoenix autonomous-research-agent systems, and continued published research output.

Competitive landscape

• Lila Sciences. Direct AI-for-science peer with different commercial-startup architecture.
• Isomorphic Labs, EvolutionaryScale, Inceptive. Biology-AI peers with different commercial-product positioning.
• Schmidt Sciences. Principal funder; adjacent AI-for-science research-funding partner.
• Allen Institute for AI (Ai2), EleutherAI, Kyutai. Non-AI-for-science nonprofit research peers.

Outlook

• The continued cadence of autonomous-research-agent system releases through 2026 to 2027.
• Continued published research output.
• The continued Schmidt-affiliated funding trajectory.

Sources

• FutureHouse official site. Organization reference.
• PaperQA paper. Autonomous scientific-paper question-answering system.
• Crow announcement. Autonomous research agent.
• Schmidt Sciences. Principal funder.
• Sam Rodriques LinkedIn. Co-Founder reference.