Ilya Sutskever, a prominent figure in the AI industry, has just announced that his new company, SSI (Safe Superintelligence), has secured a $1 billion funding round, catapulting its valuation to $5 billion. Notably, SSI achieved this massive funding in just three months since its inception, with a team of only ten members.
Ilya Sutskever's stature in the AI field is significant; he was once a key figure at OpenAI. Now, he has co-founded SSI with Daniel Gross, former head of Apple's AI projects, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher. The company's initial funding round attracted participation from renowned investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and SV Angel, with NFDG Investment Partners also joining the investment.
SSI's objective is clear—to strive for safe superintelligence. Ilya Sutskever stated that the company will focus on research and development, which may take several years before products are brought to market. He emphasized that the company will seek top talent aligned with its culture and mission to ensure that the direction of AI development is consistent with human values.
In terms of technological approach, SSI will adopt a different methodology than OpenAI. Although Ilya Sutskever did not reveal many details, he mentioned that the company will explore the "Scaling Hypothesis," which posits that the performance of AI models is proportional to computational power. SSI plans to collaborate with cloud service providers and chip manufacturers to meet its computational needs.
Although SSI operates as a traditional profit-making company, unlike OpenAI's "capped profit" model and Anthropic's "long-term benefit trust" structure, its commitment to AI safety remains unchanged. Ilya Sutskever and his team are dedicated to ensuring that the development of superintelligence is both rapid and safe, avoiding scenarios of AI taking over the world as seen in science fiction films.
With SSI establishing research teams in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, Israel, Ilya Sutskever's enthusiasm for entrepreneurship is growing. He views this venture as scaling a new peak, different from his previous experiences at OpenAI. Despite his role at OpenAI changing due to a series of internal decisions, his vision for the future of AI remains steadfast.
The establishment and successful funding of SSI once again demonstrate the appeal of fundamental AI research to the capital market. As AI technology matures, investors are willing to support teams dedicated to addressing AI safety and ethical issues. With SSI's in-depth exploration in the AI field, we have reason to expect that this company will bring new insights and possibilities to the future development of AI.