Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a new AI company co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has secured $1 billion in funding to develop safe and powerful AI systems, according to Reuters.
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), newly co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, aimed to develop safe artificial intelligence systems that far surpass human capabilities.
SSI plans to use the funds to acquire computing power, hire top talent, and build a highly trusted team of researchers and engineers. The company will be based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.
SSI, which currently has 10 employees, declined to disclose its valuation, sources estimate it to be around $5 billion. The substantial valuation highlights the continued investor interest in exceptional AI talent, despite a recent slowdown in funding for AI startups.
SSI, which currently has 10 employees, plans to use the funds to acquire computing power and hire top talent. It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel.
The funding underlines how some investors are still willing to make outsized bets on exceptional talent focused on foundational AI research. That’s despite a general waning in interest towards funding such companies which can be unprofitable for some time, and which has caused several startup founders to leave their posts for tech giants.
Investors included top venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel. NFDG, an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI’s Chief Executive Daniel Gross, also participated.
“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 said in an interview.
AI safety is a growing concern as the potential risks of rogue AI systems become more apparent. A California bill proposing safety regulations for AI companies has divided the industry, with companies like OpenAI and Google opposing it and others like Anthropic and xAI supporting it.
Sutskever, 37, is one of the most influential technologists in AI. He co-founded SSI in June with Gross, who previously led AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher.
Sutskever is chief scientist and Levy is principal scientist, while Gross is responsible for computing power and fundraising.
Sutskever explained that his new venture was motivated by his desire to tackle a different challenge than his previous work. He emphasized the importance of scaling AI models effectively and strategically, rather than simply focusing on speed and quantity.
Unlike OpenAI’s unorthodox corporate structure, implemented for AI safety reasons but which made Altman’s ouster possible, SSI has a regular for-profit structure.
Sutskever was an early advocate of scaling, a hypothesis that AI models would improve in performance given vast amounts of computing power. The idea and its execution kicked off a wave of AI investment in chips, data centers and energy, laying the groundwork for generative AI advances like ChatGPT.
Sutskever said he will approach scaling in a different way than his former employer, without sharing details.
SSI’s focus on hiring individuals with good character and extraordinary capabilities, rather than solely emphasizing credentials, reflects its commitment to building a strong and ethical team. The company plans to partner with cloud providers and chip companies to meet its computing power needs.
SSI’s commitment to safety, ethics, and long-term research, combined with its talented team and strong investor support, positions it well to make a significant contribution to the future of AI.