Ilya Sutskever, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, has announced his departure from the company after nearly a decade. In a message shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Sutskever expressed confidence in OpenAI’s ability to develop safe and beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, President Greg Brockman, and CTO Mira Murati. Altman praised Sutskever as “one of the greatest minds of our generation” in his farewell post.
Taking on the role of Chief Scientist at OpenAI is Jakub Pachocki, the previous Director of Research who led the development of GPT-4 and OpenAI Five. Sutskever’s departure comes after a period of internal conflict within the company. Last year, Altman and Brockman were unexpectedly fired by the board of directors, including Sutskever. However, they were reinstated shortly afterward, and a new board was formed.
Sutskever expressed regret for his involvement in the board’s actions and stepped down from his position as a board member. While he retained the title of Chief Scientist, reports suggest that he did not fully resume his responsibilities at OpenAI.
Regarding his future plans, Sutskever mentioned that he is embarking on a new project that holds personal significance, although no specific details have been shared. Meanwhile, OpenAI recently introduced GPT-4o, a system capable of recognizing emotions and processing and generating text, audio, and image-based outputs.
