Six months after helping lead an effort to oust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, then changing his mind, OpenAI chief scientist and co-founder Ilya Sutskever is officially leaving the AI giant. His co-lead on a critical OpenAI project also abruptly resigned on Tuesday night.
Suction spoon went to X on Tuesday evening to announce that he was leaving the company he helped create after nearly a decade. He said he was “confident” that OpenAI would build “safe and useful” AI under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, and posted a photo showing him next to Altman and other OpenAI leaders.
— Ilya Sutskever (@ilyasut) May 14, 2024
“Safe and useful” artificial intelligence was what Sutskever helped oversee. Sutskever co-led the superline team at OpenAI, which ensures AI follows what people want to do, even as its capabilities expand.
“Currently, we do not have a solution for directing or controlling a potentially superintelligent AI and preventing it from becoming rogue,” OpenAI wrote in one. July 2023 post introducing the superline team, later adding: “We need new scientific and technical advances.”
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Jan Leike, who co-led the superline team with Sutskever, posted “I resigned” within hours of posting Sutskever's launch on X.
I resigned
— Jan Leike (@janleike) May 15, 2024
Business Insider REPORTS that other members of the superline team have also left OpenAI in recent months.
In November, Sutskever and other board members tried to fire Altman after concluding that Altman “was not consistently honest in his communications” with them, but it was withdrawn within days AFTER investor AND WORKER opposite reaction. Sutskever it was him to tell Altman he was being fired.
Sutskever has not been seen in the office since the shock of November, per New York Times.
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Jakub Pachocki, previously OpenAI's director of research, will take over as chief scientist. Pachocki was one of three senior researchers at OpenAI resign a day after Altman's firing in November, and return after Altman returned.
He and Altman had nothing but praise for Sutskever's work.
Ilya introduced me to the world of deep learning research and has been a mentor to me and a great collaborator for many years. His incredible vision of what deep learning could become was fundamental to what OpenAI and the field of AI is today. I am deeply grateful to him… https://t.co/nsbMIOZHpS
— Jakub Pachocki (@merettm) May 14, 2024
Ilya and OpenAI will be separated. This is very sad for me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a leading light of our field, and a dear friend. His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known, but no less…
– Sam Altman (@sama) May 14, 2024
Sutskever said he was “excited about what comes next – a project that is very personally meaningful to me, which I will share details about in due course.”
OpenAI launched a the new AI model on Monday with advanced tools for free users.