The man who dared to revolt against Sam Altman at OpenAI just started a research lab promoting 'safe superintelligence'
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
- Ilya Sutskever initially pushed for Sam Altman's ouster as OpenAI's CEO
- Sutskever later expressed regret for his decision before leaving the company in May.
- On Wednesday, Sutskever said he's starting a new company, Safe Superintelligence Inc.
OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever announced his new venture on Wednesday — a research lab committed to developing "safe superintelligence."
"I am starting a new company," Sutskever said of his new project, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) in an X post.
I am starting a new company: https://t.co/BG3K3SI3A1
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) June 19, 2024
According to SSI's website, the lab has "one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence." SSI says this will be achieved by advancing their "capabilities as fast as possible while making sure safety always remains ahead."
"This way, we can scale in peace," the company said.
Besides Sutskever, the company lists among its cofounders former Apple AI lead, Daniel Gross, and ex-OpenAI technical staff member Daniel Levy.
When Bloomberg's Ashlee Vance asked about the company's financial backers, Sutskever declined to reveal SSI's backers and the funding it has received.
In its launch announcement, SSI said that it wasn't distracted by "management overhead or product cycles" because its "singular focus" on safety meant that it was "insulated from short-term commercial pressures."
"It will be fully insulated from the outside pressures of having to deal with a large and complicated product and having to be stuck in a competitive rat race," Sutskever told Bloomberg's Vance.
Representatives for Safe Superintelligence and OpenAI didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
SSI comes after months of uncertainty over Sutskever's future at OpenAI
Talks of Sutskever's post-OpenAI moves have been brewing ever since he left the ChatGPT maker last month. In a farewell post he published on X on May 14, Sutskever only said that he was going to work on a "project that is very personally meaningful" to him.
Sutskever played a critical role in OpenAI's AI breakthroughs, with fellow cofounder Elon Musk even referring to him as the "linchpin" of the company's success.
But Sutskever's future at OpenAI became uncertain after it came to light that he'd initially pushed for Sam Altman's ouster as CEO in November.
The company's board said in a statement on November 17, 2023, that Altman's removal came after he "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board" but did not give further details.
Sutskever later expressed regret for his decision and called for Altman's reinstatement alongside other OpenAI employees.
Altman was eventually brought back as CEO just five days after he was ousted, but the incident appeared to drive a wedge between him and Sutskever.
Following Altman's return, Sutskever appeared to have been shut out of OpenAI, BI reported in December, citing people familiar with the situation.
This isn't the first time OpenAI has seen its staff members splintering off to start their own AI companies.
In 2021, former OpenAI employees and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei founded their own AI startup, Anthropic. The company, which has investors including Amazon and Google, has also sought to position itself as more safety-conscious than its industry competitors.