OpenAI co-founder leaves a day after the GPT-4o launch event

Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder and prominent researcher at OpenAI, has announced his departure from the company. Sutskever’s decision comes after a period of internal changes at OpenAI, including the reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman following a board dispute last year.

In a statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged Sutskever’s contributions, highlighting his role in shaping the company’s research and development. Sutskever has not yet disclosed details about his future endeavors, but indicated they involve a project he finds personally significant.

Jakub Pachocki, who was OpenAI’s Director of Research, will succeed Sutskever as Chief Scientist. As per OpenAI, Pachocki has extensive experience in artificial intelligence research, leading projects in areas like large-scale reinforcement learning and deep learning optimization.

Here is what Ilay posted:

After almost a decade, I have made the decision to leave OpenAI. The company’s trajectory has been nothing short of miraculous, and I’m confident that OpenAI will build AGI that is both safe and beneficial under the leadership of @sama, @gdb, @miramurati, and now, under the excellent research leadership of @merettm. It was an honor and a privilege to have worked together, and I will miss everyone dearly.   So long, and thanks for everything. I am excited for what comes next — a project that is very personally meaningful to me, about which I will share details in due time.

His exit coincides with the recent leadership changes. Jan Leike, who led the Superalignment team focused on responsible AI development, has also resigned. It has been quite a day since the GPT-4o launch.

It remains to be seen how these changes will impact the company’s ongoing mission.