After OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever left the company in May this year, he founded Safe Superintelligence (or SSI) with Daniel Gross, who used to be responsible for Apple's AI and search efforts, and former OpenAI employee Daniel Levy. The company has offices in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.
In just three months, SSI has raised $1 billion from investors and is rumored to be valued at as much as $5 billion. The company announced the news in a tweet on the Partnership NFDG.
SSI is building a straight shot to safe superintelligence.We’ve raised $1B from NFDG, a16z, Sequoia, DST Global, and SV Angel.We’re hiring: https://t.co/DmFWnrc1Kr
— SSI Inc. (@ssi) September 4, 2024
According to CNBC, Ilya Sutskever is the co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI. In addition, Ilya Sutskever was one of the board members who ousted OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman in November. Ilya Sutskever told The Wall Street Journal and other media at the time that he was focused on ensuring that artificial intelligence would not cause harm to humans, while others, including Sam Altman, were more eager to promote the development of new technologies.
However, when Sam Altman returned, Ilya Sutskever publicly apologized for her involvement in the incident. Ilya Sutskever wrote in an X tweet on November 20, 2023:
"I deeply regret participating in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love what we have built together and will do my best to keep the company together."
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