Ilya Sutskever, The Former Chief Scientist At OpenAI, Has Launched Safe Superintelligence Inc.

Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder and ex-chief scientist of OpenAI, has unveiled his new venture, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), a month after his official departure from OpenAI. Daniel Gross, previously a partner at Y Combinator, and Daniel Levy, a former engineer at OpenAI are collaborating with him.

At OpenAI, Sutskever was instrumental in promoting AI safety, especially concerning the emergence of "superintelligent" AI systems. His collaboration with Jan Leike on the Superalignment team highlighted the critical need to address the dangers of AI exceeding human intelligence. Nevertheless, Sutskever and Leike departed from OpenAI in May due to conflicts with the company's leadership over AI safety strategies. Subsequently, Leike joined the competing AI company, Anthropic.

SSI's mission, as declared in its latest announcement, is dedicated exclusively to the safe development of superintelligent AI. "SSI stands for our mission, our identity, and our complete product roadmap, as it represents our only focus," the company expressed in a tweet. Ilya Sutskever and his team are devoted to simultaneously tackling AI safety and capabilities, striving to resolve these challenges through pioneering engineering and scientific innovations.

Unlike OpenAI's original nonprofit structure, SSI has been set up as a for-profit entity. This approach aligns with the substantial financial resources needed for AI development. Daniel Gross is optimistic about the company's capacity to secure funding, declaring, "Of all the challenges we encounter, raising capital will not be one of them."

SSI has opened offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, actively seeking technical talent to support its mission. Sutskever and Gross emphasized the company's dedication to assembling a lean, elite team of the world’s best engineers and researchers dedicated to focusing on SSI and nothing else.