Former OpenAI chief scientist starts his own AI company

OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is starting a new AI company, just a month after announcing his departure from OpenAI. “I’m starting a new company” called Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), he announced late Wednesday.

SSI is based in America and has offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. In an official post, the startup said it has “one goal and one product: a secure superintelligence.” Sutskever supplemented this with:

“We strive for secure super intelligence at a glance, with one focus, one goal and one product. We will do this through revolutionary breakthroughs produced by a small, fractured team.”

“Our unique focus ensures there are no distractions,” says SSI

SSI is currently led by Sutskever, Daniel Gross, and another former OpenAI researcher, Daniel Levy. The investors behind the startup are still unknown at the time of writing.

However, the company noted in the announcement that the entire “team, investors and business model are all aligned to achieve “a secure superintelligence.” The comment may be aimed directly at OpenAI, which was once denounced by Elon Musk for putting profit first over humanity and abandoning its original mission. Sutskever continued with:

“Our singular focus means we are not distracted by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means that safety, security and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures.”

His past with OpenAI

Suction spoons announced on May 15 that he is leaving OpenAI after almost a decade with the leading AI company. Before that, he decided to enter a period of radio silence after a failed attempt to oust CEO Sam Altman from OpenAI last December.

Another OpenAI director, Jan Leike, resigned after Sutskever. Both co-led the Superalignment team at OpenAI, which is responsible for preventing super-intelligent AI models from becoming malicious.

Sutskever did not clearly indicate why he left OpenAI. However, Leike cited safety concerns at the company, saying that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products in recent years.” He continued with:

“I joined because I thought OpenAI would be the best place in the world to do this research. However, I have been at odds with OpenAI’s leadership on the company’s core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point.”