Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and Chief Scientist of OpenAI, announced his departure from the company on Tuesday after nearly a decade of service. Sutskever was instrumental in developing OpenAI’s GPT models, including the pioneering AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
Sutskever was one of the OpenAI board members who voted to remove co-founder Sam Altman as CEO in November. Following Altman's reinstatement, Sutskever, along with the other dissenting board members, was removed. Sutskever later signed a letter with roughly 770 employees supporting Altman's return and the resignation of the current board.
On social media platform X, Sutskever expressed confidence in OpenAI's future under Altman, Greg Brockman, Mira Murati, and Jakub Pachocki, who will take over his role. Sutskever announced his next project, although details remain undisclosed.
CEO Sam Altman praised Sutskever’s contributions and expressed sadness over his departure. Altman noted Sutskever's brilliance and impact on the AI field.
In addition to Sutskever, Jan Leike, co-lead of OpenAI’s Superalignment team, will also leave the company. John Schulman will take over the scientific lead for this team.
This transition follows OpenAI’s unveiling of its latest AI model, GPT-4o.