OpenAI Co-Founder Sustkever Confirms Launch of New AI Company

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Key Takeaways

  • Ilya Sutskever, who left OpenAI in May, has confirmed his new business.
  • Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy will join him at Safe Superintelligence (SSI).
  • The company name will act as a “mission and sole focus” with super intelligence on the horizon.

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever has introduced his new AI company, Safe Superintelligence (SSI).

Having just left the ChatGPT maker last month, Sutskever wasted no time in launching his new venture. He took the announcement to social media.

On June 19, he wrote on X:

Daniel Gross, who was instrumental in Apple’s AI and Search operations, and Daniel Levy, another Open AI alumni, will join Sutskever. SSI will be present in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.

AI with Intelligence Superior to Humans

The 37-year-old Israeli-Candian computer scientist Sutskever was known to have an integral role at OpenAI. He contributed to the safety aspects of the evolving technology as well as the growth of “superintelligent” systems.

He worked with Jan Lieke on the latter. Both individuals parted ways with the company after a reported fallout regarding AI safety. This appears to have acted as a catalyst for the work that SSI will now undertake, while Leike has taken up a leadership position at rival AI firm Anthropic.

The pair authored an influential blog post last year. It set out the basis for a forecast that AI with intelligence superior to humans is likely to emerge within the decade and when it does, it requires to be met with a ready-made strategy to control and restrict it.

The company stated on X:

“SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap because it is our sole focus. Our team, investors, and business model are all aligned to achieve SSI.”

Sutskever also spoke in detail to Bloomberg about the new company, but he would not discuss its funding structure or any valuation attributed to SSI.

Given the individuals involved with the new startup, raising capital will not likely be an issue. SSI is a for-profit company by design, unlike the fledgling stages of OpenAI which launched as a non-profit back in 2015 before a required change of tack in recent times to fund its computing power.