OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever says he’s entering into the CEO function at Protected 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. Protected Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Levy is turning into president of the startup, in keeping with 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 companion, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. At one level, Zuckerberg reportedly tried to amass all of Protected Superintelligence, a startup most lately valued at $32 billion. Sutskever addressed these studies as nicely.
“You may need heard rumors of corporations trying to purchase us. We’re flattered by their consideration however are targeted on seeing our work by,” mentioned Sutskever. “We’ve the compute, we now have the staff, and we all know what to do. Collectively we’ll preserve constructing secure superintelligence.”
Naturally, Gross’ departure might elevate questions across the startup. If Protected Superintelligence was near its purpose — certainly a groundbreaking expertise, because it’s described — why would its co-founder go away to begin one thing new, seemingly at Meta?
Notably, Protected Superintelligence describes themselves because the world’s “first straight-shot SSI lab,” that means the corporate has no different merchandise or ambitions outdoors of creating, nicely, secure superintelligence. That’s the title, that’s the product, that’s their entire factor. Sutskever began Protected Superintelligence shortly after leaving OpenAI, the place he performed a job within the temporary ousting of CEO Sam Altman.
In the meantime, it appears probably that Meta Superintelligence Labs will develop expertise that powers plenty 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 a part of. Zuckerberg has additionally nabbed some prime researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind to fill out his new AI staff.
However, Sutskever might have his arms full as Protected Superintelligence’s CEO. Whereas he’s held earlier high-ranking positions, comparable to OpenAI’s chief scientist, the CEO function might include new challenges — comparable to elevating new capital from buyers and recruiting prime expertise. Sutskever notes in his publish that he’ll proceed to supervise Protected Superintelligence’s technical staff.
