OpenAI founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever’s new startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) has raised $1 billion to develop secure artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems, company executives told Reuters.
Sutskever said in June that the SSI would have offices in the United States and Israel, but did not elaborate on the matter in the past three months. AGI, or superintelligence as Sutskever calls it, is a self-learning AI system that develops human and superhuman abilities.
According to a Reuters report, SSI has 10 employees, and with the new funding, the company will buy powerful computers and hire a small team of highly reliable researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. 5 billion dollars, before even developing a product or launching a beta version.
According to Reuters, investors in SSI included venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and NFDG, an investment partnership managed by SV Angel, Nat Friedman and SSI’s Israeli CEO Daniel Gross.
Sutskever left OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, earlier this year due to a dispute with the company’s management and directors over the future direction of artificial intelligence. He is considered conservative on the future role of artificial intelligence and the risks it poses to humanity. According to accounts, the dispute between Sam Altman and Sutskever revolved around Altman’s desire to take the company in commercial directions that ignored the limitations of technology. Sutskever initially ousted Altman last November, but Altman quickly returned to the company after pressure from investors, and Sutskever resigned six months later.
SSI was set up as a for-profit company, unlike OpenAI, which is a non-profit, Sutskever told Reuters. “It defined a slightly different mountain than what I was working on,” he said.
“It’s important for us to be surrounded by investors who understand, respect and support our mission, which is to take a direct step into secure superintelligence, and especially to spend several years doing R&D on our product before we bring it to market,” Gross told Reuters. “
Gross added that they spend hours checking candidates for “good character” and look for people with extraordinary abilities rather than emphasizing credentials and experience in the field. “One thing that excites us is that you find people who are interested in the work, not interested in the stage, who are interested in the hype.”
“Some people can work really long hours and they’ll go the same way faster. It’s not too much of our style. But if you do something different, then it’s possible to do something special for you,” Sutskever said.
Sutskever, who was born in Russia and immigrated to Israel at the age of five, co-founded SSI with Gross, who previously led Apple’s artificial intelligence initiatives, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher, before moving to Canada 10 years later.
Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – published on September 4, 2024.
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