[News Figures] "Regret Over Altman Dismissal" OpenAI Board 'Keyman', Sutskever

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI Chief Scientist
Considered a Key Figure in Altman Ouster Incident
Draws Attention by Posting 'Regret' Message After Three Days

"I deeply regret participating in the board's actions."

Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist and co-founder of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, stated this on the 20th (local time) on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), regarding his decision to agree to the dismissal of former CEO Sam Altman. It was three days after the decision to dismiss Altman was made. Altman, who was tagged in the post, responded with three hearts.

Last June, Sam Altman, former CEO of OpenAI (photo left), attended an event together with Ilya Sutskever, Chief Scientist.
[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

"Unclear why Sutskever changed his stance"

Chief Scientist Sutskever is one of the four members of the six-person OpenAI board who decided to dismiss Altman. After the board's dismissal decision on the 17th, foreign media viewed the incident as stemming from a philosophical conflict between former CEO Altman and Chief Scientist Sutskever regarding AI. They reportedly clashed over the speed of generative AI development, commercialization methods, and ways to minimize potential harm to the public.

There were also reports that former CEO Altman tried to aggressively expand the company by attempting to raise hundreds of billions of dollars in the Middle East to create an AI semiconductor startup, which Chief Scientist Sutskever opposed. Through this series of events, foreign media evaluated Sutskever as the 'key man' who led the ousting of Altman.

However, he publicly posted that he regrets his decision and said, "I will do everything I can to reunite the company." He also signed a petition stating that over 700 OpenAI employees would resign if Altman is not reinstated. Foreign media still report that it is unclear why he is showing such a change in position.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

However, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing multiple sources, reported that before making the decision, Chief Scientist Sutskever had deep conversations with Anna Brockman, wife of co-founder Greg Brockman who left OpenAI with former CEO Altman, and company employees. Sutskever was reportedly very close to the Brockman couple, having officiated their wedding in 2019. It is said that Anna Brockman pleaded with him in the office, tearfully urging him to reconsider.

Sutskever, who studied under the AI godfather... Joined OpenAI after Elon Musk's persuasion

Born in 1986, Chief Scientist Sutskever was born and spent his early years in Russia during the Soviet era. When he was five in 1991, he moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where he spent his school years. In 2002, he moved with his family to Canada, studied at the University of Toronto, earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2005, a master's degree in computer science in 2007, and a PhD in philosophy in 2013.

While studying at the University of Toronto, Sutskever had a fateful encounter with Geoffrey Hinton, who first conceived the concept of deep learning and is regarded as the 'godfather of artificial intelligence (AI).' Sutskever, who conducted AI research with Hinton, worked at the startup DNN Research led by Hinton and began working at Google in 2013 after Google acquired it.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, was the one who brought Sutskever, who worked for three years on Google's Brain team, to OpenAI. Musk, an early investor in OpenAI, persuaded him to join, and in 2015, Sutskever became a founding member of OpenAI, establishing the company alongside Altman, Brockman, and others. Musk has stated that Sutskever is a core figure at OpenAI and that he put tremendous effort into persuading him, which was quite challenging.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Chief Scientist Sutskever was a figure who focused on developing beneficial artificial general intelligence (AGI) for humanity, expressing concerns about the risks of AI. In this regard, he often clashed with Altman. Accordingly, in July, he established the Superalignment team at OpenAI to build solutions that control superintelligent AI to align AGI with human interests.

It is said that Sutskever predicted the generative AI ChatGPT would not succeed when it was unveiled in November last year. He also described himself to MIT Technology Review as "living a very simple life," saying, "I don't have much to do besides work and go home. There are many social activities and events I could attend, but I don't."

Who are the other board members who decided to oust Altman?

Besides Chief Scientist Sutskever, three other board members within OpenAI who supported Altman's ousting are currently facing a crisis. They are outside directors Adam D'Angelo, founder of the social knowledge-sharing platform Quora and CEO of AI startup Poe; tech entrepreneur Tasha McCauley; and Helen Toner of Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. The board members only cited communication issues as the reason for Altman's dismissal and provided no other explanations.

CEO D'Angelo earned a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2006, worked as a technical director at Facebook for two years, and founded Quora in 2009. In 2017, Quora secured $85 million in a Series D funding round led by Altman and others.

Another outside director, McCauley, based in California, is the Chief Operating Scientist at the nonprofit organization Lant and joined the boards of OpenAI and another tech company, Geosim Systems, in 2018. She is also the wife of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who starred as the male lead in the movie "500 Days of Summer." Lastly, Toner holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Melbourne, a master's degree in security studies from Georgetown University, and has conducted research at Oxford University's AI Governance Center. She is interested in the impact of AI on warfare and related issues.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.