OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever says he’s getting into the CEO function at Secure Superintelligence, the AI startup he launched in 2024. In a publish on X, Sutskever confirmed Thursday that Daniel Gross, the startup’s co-founder and CEO, departed the corporate as of June 29. Secure Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Levy is changing into president of the startup, based on Sutskever.
The announcement follows weeks of reporting that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in superior talks to rent Gross, in addition to his longtime investing accomplice, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. At one level, Zuckerberg reportedly tried to amass all of Secure Superintelligence, a startup most lately valued at $32 billion. Sutskever addressed these studies as nicely.
“You may need heard rumors of firms trying to purchase us. We’re flattered by their consideration however are centered on seeing our work by means of,” mentioned Sutskever. “Now we have the compute, now we have the crew, and we all know what to do. Collectively we’ll preserve constructing protected superintelligence.”
Naturally, Gross’ departure could elevate questions across the startup. If Secure Superintelligence was near their purpose — absolutely a groundbreaking know-how, because it’s described — why would its co-founder go away to begin one thing new, seemingly at Meta?
Notably, Secure Superintelligence describes themselves because the world’s “first straight-shot SSI lab,” that means the corporate has no different merchandise or ambitions exterior of creating, nicely, protected superintelligence. That’s the title, that’s the product, that’s their entire factor. Sutskever began Secure Superintelligence shortly after leaving OpenAI, the place he performed a task within the transient ousting of CEO Sam Altman.
In the meantime, it appears seemingly that Meta Superintelligence Labs will develop know-how that powers a number of the corporate’s merchandise. In Zuckerberg’s memo asserting the brand new unit, he referenced Meta’s experience in constructing and rising merchandise that attain billions of individuals, and cited the early wins Meta has had in AI wearables.
Meaning Gross, who beforehand led AI groups at Apple after the iPhone maker acquired his startup, might have a extra acquainted function at Meta, ought to he be part of. Zuckerberg has additionally nabbed some high researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind to fill out his new AI crew.
Nonetheless, Sutskever could have his palms full as Secure Superintelligence’s CEO. Whereas he’s held earlier high-ranking positions, corresponding to OpenAI’s chief scientist, the CEO function could include new challenges — corresponding to elevating new capital from buyers and recruiting high expertise. Sutskever notes in his publish that he’ll proceed to supervise Secure Superintelligence’s technical crew.
