OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever says he will leave the startup

Published

2 years ago

May 14, 2024

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OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever said Tuesday that he’s leaving the Microsoft-backed startup.

“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,” Sutskever wrote in an X post on Tuesday.

The departure comes months after OpenAI went through a leadership crisis in November involving co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

In November, OpenAI’s board said in a statement that Altman had not been “consistently candid in his communications with the board.” The issue quickly caqme to look more complex. The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that Sutskever came to focus on ensuring that artificial intelligence would not harm humans, while others, including Altman, were eager to push ahead with delivering new technology.

Almost all of OpenAI’s employees signed an open letter saying they would leave in response to the board’s action. Days later, Altman was back at the company, and board members Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and Sutskever, who had voted to oust Altman, were out. Adam D’Angelo, who had also voted to push out Altman, stayed on the board.

When Altman was asked about Sutskever’s status on a Zoom call with reporters at the time, he said there were no updates to share. “I love Ilya… I hope we work together for the rest of our careers, my career, whatever,” Altman said. “Nothing to announce today.”

On Tuesday, Altman shared his thoughts as Sutskever leaves.

“This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend,” Altman wrote on X. “His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important.” Altman said research director Jakub Pachocki, who has been at OpenAI since 2017, will replace Sutskever as chief scientist.

OpenAI has announced new board members, including former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Microsoft obtained a nonvoting board observer position.

In March, OpenAI announced its new board and the wrap-up of an internal investigation by U.S. law firm WilmerHale into the events leading up to Altman’s ouster. Altman rejoined OpenAI’s board, and three new board members were announced: Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Nicole Seligman, former EVP and Global General Counsel of Sony and President of Sony Entertainment; and Fidji Simo, CEO and Chair of Instacart.

The three new members will “work closely with current board members Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers and Bret Taylor as well as Greg, Sam, and OpenAI’s senior management,” according to a company release in March.

News of Sutskever’s departure comes a day after OpenAI launched a new AI model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand use of its popular chatbot.

The update brings the GPT-4 model to everyone, including OpenAI’s free users, technology chief Mira Murati said Monday in a livestreamed event. She added that the new model, GPT-4o, is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text, video and audio. OpenAI said it eventually plans to allow users to video chat with ChatGPT. “This is the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use,” Murati said.

In 2015, Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, another OpenAI co-founder, wanted Sutskever, then a research scientist at Google, to become the budding startup’s top scientist, according to the lawsuit Musk filed against OpenAI in March.

“Dr. Sutskever went back and forth on whether to leave Google and join the project, but it was ultimately a call from Mr. Musk on the day OpenAI, Inc. was publicly announced that convinced Dr. Sutskever to commit to joining the project as OpenAI, Inc.’s Chief Scientist,” the legal filing said.

Technology

Amazon had a very big week that could shape where its stagnant stock goes next

Published

3 hours ago

December 5, 2025

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Amazon had a very big week that could shape where its stagnant stock goes next

Technology

Meta acquiring AI wearable company Limitless

Published

4 hours ago

December 5, 2025

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Meta acquiring AI wearable company Limitless

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wears the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, as he delivers a speech presenting the new line of smart glasses, during the Meta Connect event at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, U.S., Sept. 17, 2025.

Carlos Barria | Reuters

Meta is acquiring artificial intelligence wearable startup Limitless, the companies said Friday.

“We’re excited that Limitless will be joining Meta to help accelerate our work to build AI-enabled wearables,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.

Limitless makes a small, AI-powered pendant that can record conversations and generate summaries.

Limitless CEO Dan Siroker revealed the deal on Friday via a corporate blog post but did not disclose the financial terms.

“Meta recently announced a new vision to bring personal superintelligence to everyone and a key part of that vision is building incredible AI-enabled wearables,” Siroker said in the post and an accompanying video. “We share this vision and we’ll be joining Meta to help bring our shared vision to life.”

Salesforce shares pop 5%, continuing post-earnings rally and leaving stock poised for best week since 2023

Published

5 hours ago

December 5, 2025

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Salesforce shares pop 5%, continuing post-earnings rally and leaving stock poised for best week since 2023

Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Salesforce shares popped 5% on Friday after the company posted better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Wednesday despite falling short of Wall Street’s revenue estimates.

The stock, which is up 13% over the past five days, is aiming for its best week since 2023.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.25, topping Wall Street’s estimates of $2.86 per share. Revenue increased 8.6% year over year to $10.26 billion but just missed analyst projections of $10.27 billion.

Although the artificial intelligence boom has pushed several tech companies into record surges, cloud software firms have seen a rocky year as investors wonder whether AI will render the industry obsolete.

Salesforce is hoping to persuade Wall Street that AI will be able to bolster its products rather than replace them.

Investors “somehow think software companies are under arrest from AI, when the opposite is true,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday.

During the third quarter, the company acquired startups Regrello and Waii, which uses AI to generate code with natural language instructions.

Despite Salesforce’s shares being down 21% year to date, compared with the Nasdaq’s 22% gain, analysts are more optimistic for 2026.

“CRM [Salesforce] continues to be levered to digital transformation, and we expect the company to grow at a solid rate going forward,” Mizuho analysts wrote. “At the same time, we believe CRM will remain fiscally disciplined and that it can continue to drive higher operating and FCF margins.”

Analysts highlighted Salesforce’s AI platform Agentforce, which builds agents that automate business tasks and streamline workflow.

Despite initial investor skepticism over the platform, Cantor analysts were encouraged by its strong adoption in the customer service space.

“We think CRM is starting to formalize and mature the strategy, which should make it easier for customers to understand, and therefore adopt, Agentforce,” the Cantor analysts wrote.

Annual recurring revenue of Agentforce jumped 330% year over year to $540 million.

“Why everyone is so excited about Agentforce is because this is what AI was meant to be,” Benioff said. “It brings together humans and data and AI and apps, and delivers an incredible experience for companies.”

WATCH: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer