launched in 2024. In a post on X, Sutskever confirmed on Thursday that Daniel Gross, the startup’s co-founder and CEO, has departed the company as of June 29. Sustkever also mentioned that Safe Supperinetligecce co-founder Daniel Levy is becoming president of the startup.
This announcement comes after weeks of reporting that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in advanced talks to hire Gross, as well as his longtime investing partner, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. At this point, Zuckerberg has reportedly attempted to acquire all of Safe Superintelligence, the startup being valued most recently at $32 billion. Sutskever addressed those reports as well.
“You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention, but are focused on seeing our work through,” said Sutskever. He also added, “We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence.”
Also worth mentioning, Safe Superintelligence describes itself as the world’s “first straight shot SSI lab” meaning the company has no other products or ambitions outside of developing, well, safe superintelligence. Sutskever also started Safe Superintelligence shortly after leaving OpenAI, where he was the CEO along with Sam Altman.
At the same time, it looks like Meta Superintelligence Labs will develop tech that powers lots of the company’s products. In Zuckerberg’s memo announcing the new unit, he also referenced Meta’s expertise in building and growing products that reach billions of people, also citing the early wins Meta has had in AI wearables.
This also means Gross, who had previously led AI teams at Apple after the iPhone maker acquired his startup, could have a more familiar role at Meta, should he join. Zuckerberg has also nabbed some top researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind to complete his new AI team.
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More so, Sutskever may have his hands full in the position of Safe Superintelligence’s CEO. While he’s held previous high-ranking positions, such as OpenAI’s chief scientist, the CEO role may come with new challenges, among which are raising new capital from investors and recruiting top talent. Sutskever also notes in his post that he will continue to oversee Safe Superintelligence’s technical team, as reported by TechCrunch
Also worth mentioning, Safe Superintelligence describes itself as the world’s “first straight shot SSI lab” meaning the company has no other products or ambitions outside of developing, well, safe superintelligence. Sutskever also started Safe Superintelligence shortly after leaving OpenAI, where he was the CEO along with Sam Altman.
At the same time, it looks like Meta Superintelligence Labs will develop tech that powers lots of the company’s products. In Zuckerberg’s memo announcing the new unit, he also referenced Meta’s expertise in building and growing products that reach billions of people, also citing the early wins Meta has had in AI wearables.
This also means Gross, who had previously led AI teams at Apple after the iPhone maker acquired his startup, could have a more familiar role at Meta, should he join. Zuckerberg has also nabbed some top researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind to complete his new AI team.
Subscribe to our newsletter
More so, Sutskever may have his hands full in the position of Safe Superintelligence’s CEO. While he’s held previous high-ranking positions, such as OpenAI’s chief scientist, the CEO role may come with new challenges, among which are raising new capital from investors and recruiting top talent. Sutskever also notes in his post that he will continue to oversee Safe Superintelligence’s technical team, as reported by TechCrunch