On May 14, it was announced that one of the founders of OpenAI, and also its chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever was leaving the company. At the time, OpenAI"s CEO Sam Altman stated Sutskever was departing because he had "something personally meaningful he is going to go work on. Today, we have a little more info on what Sutskever is doing next.
I am starting a new company: https://t.co/BG3K3SI3A1
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) June 19, 2024
On his X account, Sutskever announced he is launching a new startup called Safe SuperIntelligence Inc. In a follow-up post, he stated the goals for the new company:
We will pursue safe superintelligence in a straight shot, with one focus, one goal, and one product. We will do it through revolutionary breakthroughs produced by a small cracked team.
The company"s official website is very bare-bones at the moment. It just has a joint statement from the company"s co-founder: Sutskever, tech entrepreneur Daniel Gross, and another former OpenAI team member, Daniel Levy.
That statement says, in part:
We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs. We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead.
This way, we can scale in peace.
Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures.
The statement says that the company currently has offices in n Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel. The only other page on the site at the moment is its Contact page, with email addresses for the company"s communications team and another address for people who want to be considered to join SSI.
It will be interesting to see what Sutskever and the other SSI founders come up with in terms of an AI product, and if it will be able to leapfrog over OpenAI"s efforts.