OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever said Tuesday that he is leaving Microsoft-Boot is supported.
“I am very excited about what is to come – a project that means a lot to me personally and I will share the details at the appropriate time,” Sutskever wrote in a post. X post on Tuesday.
The departure comes months after OpenAI went through a leadership crisis involving co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.
In November, OpenAI’s board said in a statement that Altman had not “always been forthright in his communications with the board.” The problem quickly became more complicated. Wall Street Journal and other media reported that Sutskever trained his focus on ensuring that artificial intelligence would not harm humans, while others, including Altman, instead are more eager to promote new technology offerings.
Almost all OpenAI employees signed an open letter saying they would leave in response to the board’s actions. A few days later, Altman returned to the company and board members Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Sutskever, who had voted to oust Altman, walked out. Adam D’Angelo, who also voted to remove Altman, remains on the board.
When Altman was asked about Sutskever’s status on a Launch called by a reporter at the time, he said he had no updates to share. “I love Ilya,” Altman said. … I hope we work together for the rest of my career, my career, whatever.” “There is nothing to announce today.”
On Tuesday, Altman shared his thoughts on Sutskever’s passing.
“This is very sad for me,” Altman wrote; Ilya was easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light for our field and a dear friend.” on X. “His intelligence and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less known but no less important.” Altman said research director Jakub Pachocki, who has worked at OpenAI since 2017, will replace Sutskever as chief scientist.
OpenAI has announced new board members, including former Sales force co-CEO Bret Taylor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Microsoft won non-voting board observer status.
In March, OpenAI announced its new board and concluded an internal investigation by US law firm WilmerHale into the events leading up to Altman’s firing. Altman rejoins OpenAI’s board of directors and three new board members have been announced: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former EVP and global general counsel of Sony and president of Sony Entertainment; and Fidji Simo, CEO and chairman of Instacart.
The three new members will “work closely with current board members Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers and Bret Taylor as well as Greg, Sam and OpenAI senior management,” according to a company release in March, referring to OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. .
News of Sutskever’s departure comes a day after OpenAI launched new AI model and a desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand the use of its popular chatbot.
Chief technology officer Mira Murati said Monday during a livestreamed event that the update brings the GPT-4 model to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users. She added that the new model, the GPT-4o, is “much faster” with improved text, video and audio capabilities.
OpenAI says it plans to allow users to video chat using ChatGPT. “This is the first time we’ve really taken a big step forward in terms of ease of use,” Murati said.
In 2015, Altman et Tesla CEO Elon Musk, another OpenAI co-founder, wanted Sutskever, then a research scientist at Googleto become the lead scientist of this growing startup, according to lawsuit Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in March.
“Dr. Sutskever considered whether to leave Google and join the project, but ultimately it was a call from Mr. Musk on the day OpenAI, Inc. was publicly announced that convinced Dr. Sutskever to commit to participating. joined the project as Chief Scientist of OpenAI, Inc.,” the regulatory filing said.
