Ever since Sam Altman’s dramatic exit and comeback as a board member, we’ve all been wondering where Ilya Sutskever is and what the chief scientist at OpenAI’s been upto? 

The internet is filled with memes where he’s hilariously portrayed as OpenAI’s ‘hostage’. 

The rule is clear: Do not bring up Sutskever with Altman, as it makes him uncomfortable. However, in a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Altman confirmed that Sutskever was fine and alive and said that he loves him dearly despite what transpired between them last year. 

“I love Ilya. I have tremendous respect for him. I don’t have anything I can say about his plans right now. That’s a question for him,” said Altman, adding that he really hopes they work together for the remainder of his career.

According to Altman, Sutskever can sometimes be silly (in a good way). “I was at a dinner party with him recently, and he was playing with a puppy. He was in a very silly mood, which was very endearing,” shared Altman. “I was thinking, oh man, this is not the side of Ilya that the world sees the most.” 

It’s no wonder that in the OpenAI office hangs an artwork of the company’s logo, painted by the chief scientist himself. The logo symbolises ‘AI That Loves Humanity’, which indirectly shows how much Sutskever loves the company, and the future of AGI. 

Altman said he has been working closely with Sutskevaer to understand what AGI would mean for humanity. “Ilya is a credit to humanity in terms of how much he thinks and worries about ensuring we get this right,” he said.

AGI Concerns? 

Last year, reports surfaced that Sutskever was concerned about AGI safety and the rapid pace at which OpenAI was advancing. Altman confirmed this, saying, “One of the many things I admire about Ilya is his serious approach to AGI and broader safety concerns, including the societal impact.”

Sutskever was last seen active on X in December, when he announced that he was working on aligning superhuman AI systems, which will be capable of complex and creative behaviors that humans cannot fully understand. 

Many in the tech community believed that Sutskever glimpsed what could be considered AGI. This possibility is associated with Q*. 

Recently, xAI chief Elon Musk sued OpenAI, partly because he believes OpenAI’s Q* model has a strong claim on being AGI. Q* is OpenAI’s secret breakthrough leaked during Altman’s ousting in November.

Altman, however, rubbished the claims. “Ilya has not seen AGI. None of us have seen AGI. We’ve not built AGI.” He said that OpenAI is not a good company for keeping secrets and has been plagued by a lot of leaks, Q* being one of them. He added that OpenAI was ‘not ready to talk’ about Q* yet. 

What Next For Ilya 

Although Altman has assured that Sutskever is currently employed at OpenAI, a report suggests that Sutskever’s future is uncertain and that has recently become ‘invisible’ within the organisation.

Meanwhile, Musk is open to bringing him on board at his AI startup xAI. On December 9, an individual posted on X suggesting that Sutskever should join Tesla. Musk, a former board member at OpenAI, responded to the post saying, “Or xAI”. 

xAI recently open-sourced Grok, taking a dig at OpenAI. 

Musk calls Sutskever the ‘lynch pin’ of OpenAI and is even said to have fought with Larry Page in trying to poach him from Google and bringing him to OpenAI. 

Interestingly, Sutskever has three years of experience as a research scientist at the Google Brain Team. Another possibility is that he moves to Google DeepMind, which aligns with his strong focus on responsible AI. He could assist them in overcoming the challenges Google is facing with Gemini.

Wherever Ilya is hiding these days, you can bet AGI’s having an identity crisis without him! “Ilya is the AGI”