Much has happened in the Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever relationship over the last few years which has kept the tech world on tenterhooks, but the first meeting of the duo — which led to the creation of OpenAI, and in some ways, the current AI revolution — was pretty interesting too.
Recently, in a conversation, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recounted the story of how he recruited Ilya Sutskever, the Chief Scientist, to co-found OpenAI. The account offers a glimpse into the initial spark that ignited the creation of one of the most influential AI companies in the world. Altman’s description is remarkably candid, using a “bank heist movie” analogy to capture the spirit of assembling a team for a daring venture. He also reveals his immediate recognition of Sutskever’s genius, and the almost impulsive decision to connect with him.
“In retrospect, it feels like this movie montage,” Altman begins, setting a cinematic scene of how he had been looking to recruit people at OpenAI. “Like at the beginning of the bank heist movie, when you’re driving around to find the people or whatever.” He then focuses on Sutskever: “Ilya, I heard he was really smart, and then I watched some video of his. He’s extremely smart, like true, true, genuine genius and visionary, but also, he has this incredible presence.”
Ilya’s video, Altman said, cemented his need to meet Sutskever: “So I watched this video of his. I was like, Like, I got to meet that guy. So I emailed him. But he didn’t respond,” Altman says.
The tech landscape might have been different today had Altman left the matter there, but he wasn’t one to take no for an answer. “So I just went to some conference Ilya was speaking at, and we met up. And then after that, we started talking a bunch,” he says.
“One of the things that worked really well in retrospect was we said from the very beginning, we’re going to go after AGI,” Altman says. This goal seemed to motivate Sutskever, who agreed to co-found OpenAI.
This meeting was possibly a pivotal moment in AI history. After assembling the team — and receiving funding from Elon Musk — OpenAI was founded in 2015. The company released its breakthrough product, ChatGPT, in late 2022, and set off the current AI revolution.
But Ilya Sutskever and Sam Altman have since parted ways. In 2023, Ilya was allegedly a part of a coup that sought to oust Sam Altman and Greg Brockman from OpenAI. The duo ended up leaving, and even joined Microsoft, but after a revolt by the staff, were reinstated. This put Ilya Sutskever in a difficult spot, and he wasn’t heard from for months. Ilya then announced that he was launching his own AI company, SSI or Safe Superintelligence. SSI has done pretty well for itself, and is now valued at an astonishing $30 billion, and in actively competing with OpenAI in being the first to reach AGI. It’s been an incredible arc, but the story of Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever, one gets the feeling, isn’t quite yet over.