Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the new startup of OpenAI founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion to develop safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) systems, company executives have told “Reuters.”
Sutskever said in June that SSI would have offices in the US and Israeli but has disclosed no more details on the matter over the past three months. AGI or super-intelligence as Sutskever calls it, is an AI system that learns by itself and develops human and super-human abilities.
According to the “Reuters” report SSI has 10 employees and with the new funding the company will purchase powerful computers and hire a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, The report adds that the company has a valuation of $5 billion, even before it has developed a product or launched a beta version.
According to “Reuters” investors in SSI include venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel while NFDG, an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI’s Israeli CEO Daniel Gross, also participated.
Sutskever quit OpenAI – which developed ChatGPT – earlier this year over a dispute with the company’s management and directors over the future direction of AI. He is considered a conservative on the future role of AI and the risks it poses to mankind. Estimates are that the dispute between Sam Altman and Sutskever revolved around Altman’s desire to take the company in commercial directions, which do not take into account restricting the technology. Initially Sutskever ousted Altman last November but Altman swiftly returned to the company following investors’ pressure and Sutskever stepped down six months later.
Sutskever surprisingly told “Reuters” that SSI has been founded as a commercial company in contrast to OpenAI which was a non-profit company. He said he had, “Identified a mountain that’s a bit different from what I was working on.”
Gross told “Reuters,” “It’s important for us to be surrounded by investors who understand, respect and support our mission, which is to make a straight shot to safe superintelligence and in particular to spend a couple of years doing R&D on our product before bringing it to market,”
Gross added that they had spent hours vetting if candidates have “good character”, and are looking for people with extraordinary capabilities rather than overemphasizing credentials and experience in the field. “One thing that excites us is when you find people that are interested in the work, that are not interested in the scene, in the hype.”
Sutskever said, “Some people can work really long hours and they’ll just go down the same path faster. It’s not so much our style. But if you do something different, then it becomes possible for you to do something special.”
Sutskever, who was born in Russia and immigrated to Israel when he was five, before moving on to Canada 10 years later, founded SSI together with Gross, who previously led Apple’s AI initiatives, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 4, 2024.
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