Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former Chief Scientist of OpenAI, has embarked on a new venture by founding Safe Superintelligence Inc. Joining him in this ambitious endeavour are former OpenAI colleagues Daniel Levy and Daniel Gross. The startup, true to its name, is dedicated exclusively to developing a powerful AI with a focus on safety.
“We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs,” the company writes in a post-Wednesday. “We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead. This way, we can scale in peace.”
The formation of Safe Superintelligence Inc. comes in the wake of Sutskever’s involvement in the significant events at OpenAI, including the stepping down of CEO Sam Altman from his position and removal from the company’s board—a move that was later reversed, reinstating Altman to his former roles. Sutskever, who has been a vocal advocate of the concept of superintelligence, previously shared his thoughts on the matter in a blog post with then-OpenAI executive Jan Leike, now with Anthropic. They stated that while superintelligence “seems far off now, we believe it could arrive this decade.”
Now, Sutskever is channelling his efforts into making that vision a reality with his new startup. “This company is special in that its first product will be the safe superintelligence, and it will not do anything else up until then,” Sutskever told Bloomberg. “It will be fully insulated from the outside pressures of having to deal with a large and complicated product and having to be stuck in a competitive rat race.”
The website for Safe Superintelligence Inc. is notably minimalist, featuring a simple white page with a generic font and minimal formatting. The statement shared on Twitter is also displayed on the site, reflecting the company’s current focus. Additionally, the startup has announced that it is hiring, seeking to build a “lean, cracked team” of engineers.
With the establishment of Safe Superintelligence Inc., Sutskever and his team aim to push the boundaries of AI capabilities while maintaining a steadfast commitment to safety. As they embark on this new journey, the AI community and industry observers will be keenly watching their progress and the potential breakthroughs that lie ahead.
