OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever leaves the company

Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist and co-founder of OpenAI, is leaving the artificial intelligence company, a departure that ends months of speculation in Silicon Valley over the future of a leading AI researcher who played a key role in Sam Altman’s brief ouster last year.

Sutskever will be replaced by research director Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI announced on its blog on Tuesday.

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Sutskever’s tenure at OpenAI, which lasted nearly ten years, was dramatic. When OpenAI was founded in 2015, he was its research director after being recruited by Elon Musk to join the company. By this time, Sutskever was already well known in the field for his research on neural networks at the University of Toronto and his work at the Google Brain Lab.

A central figure in the company, Sutskever even celebrated the wedding of President Greg Brockman at the OpenAI offices.

Last year, Sutskever was one of several OpenAI board members who decided to fire CEO Altman, a move that sparked a five-day whirlwind within the company: Brockman resigned in protest. Investors revolted. And within days, almost all of OpenAI’s approximately 770 employees signed a letter threatening to resign unless Altman was reinstated.

Adding to the chaos, Sutskever said he regretted his part in Altman’s ouster. Shortly after, the CEO was reinstated.

After returning to the company in late November, Altman said in a blog post that Sutskever would not return to his former position as a board member, but that the company was “discussing how he could continue his work at OpenAI”.

Over the next few months, Sutskever largely disappeared from public view, sparking speculation about his continued role within the company. Sutskever’s post on X on Tuesday was the first time he shared anything on the social network since reposting a post from OpenAI in December.

When asked about Sutskever at a press conference in March, Altman said he liked him and that he thought Sutskever liked OpenAI, adding: “I hope we work together for the rest of our careers.”

In an article on X Tuesday, Altman wrote: “Ilya is undoubtedly one of the greatest minds of our generation, a beacon in our field, and a dear friend. »

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The company’s new chief scientist, Pachocki, has worked at OpenAI since 2017. Pachocki led the development of the company’s GPT-4 AI model, OpenAI said.