Indian AI engineer builds world model, claims up to 125x faster performance

In one comparison cited by the company, SKY-001 costs $0.005 per sample, against $0.75 for OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra.Indian engineer Sam Pasupalak, cofounder and CEO of Skyfall AI, has introduced SKY-001, an artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to tackle complex engineering and physical design challenges, ETtech reports.The company claims the model is significantly faster and cheaper than competing frontier AI systems.SKY-001 is a “world model” that uses text and image inputs to understand physical and spatial properties and predict how objects or environments may behave.

Unlike conventional AI models focused primarily on language or image generation, it is designed to support engineering workflows involving real-world structures and objects.The model uses computer-aided design (CAD) and building information modelling (BIM) techniques to generate multiple preliminary 3D assets from a text prompt or a two-dimensional image.This allows users to explore different design possibilities before refining a final version.According to Pasupalak, SKY-001 is intended to support complex applications such as printed circuit board (PCB) design, aerospace engineering and molecule design.

Its staged approach to design generation aims to help engineers develop and refine physical concepts more efficiently.In benchmarks shared by Skyfall AI, the company claims SKY-001 is between 51 and 125 times faster than the frontier models it tested, while costing between 150 and 210 times less.In one comparison cited by the company, SKY-001 costs $0.005 per sample, against $0.75 for OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra.The model also recorded an Intersection over Union (IoU) score of 79.7 per cent, marginally higher than the 79.1 per cent reported for GPT-6 Astra.IoU is a metric used to measure how closely an AI model’s predicted output overlaps with a reference design.

However, the performance and cost figures are based on Skyfall AI’s own tests and have not been independently verified.Before founding Skyfall AI, Pasupalak co-founded AI startup Maluuba in 2011 and served as its CEO.

Microsoft later acquired Maluuba.