What you need to know
- Former OpenAI co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever recently raised $1 billion through investors for his new AI firm — Safe Superintelligence Inc.
- Safe Superintelligence Inc (SSI) is focused on building safe superintelligence as OpenAI reportedly prioritizes shiny products over safety processes.
- OpenAI is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy within the next 12 months, with projections of $5 billion in losses.
- The ChatGPT maker might get an extended lifeline through another round of funding sponsored by Microsoft, Apple, and NVIDIA, which could push its market cap to over $100 billion.
After dedicating a decade of his life to OpenAI, co-founder and Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever announced that he was departing from the firm to focus on a project that was “personally meaningful.” In June, Sutskever debuted Safe Superintelligence Inc., a new company whose mission is to build safe superintelligence.
As you may know, multiple OpenAI staffers have left the firm, citing safety concerns and alleging that the company prioritizes shiny products as safety processes take a backseat. Building on this premise, the ChatGPT maker reportedly sent invitations to GPT-4o’s launch before testing took place, pressuring the safety team to scheme through the entire process to meet the assigned deadline in under one week.
As it happens, Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence firm is enjoying significant success from the bat. According to a report by Reuters, the scientist recently managed to raise $1 billion for the new startup to further its safety advances from multiple investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, NFDG, and more.
OpenAI continues to languish in multiple issues
Recently, we reported that OpenAI was on the brink of bankruptcy within the next 12 months, with projections of $5 billion in losses. The firm reportedly spends $7 billion on training its AI models and $1.5 billion on staffing but generates approximately $3.5 billion in revenue.
As it happens, the ChatGPT maker might get an extended lifeline from Apple, Microsoft, and NVIDIA through another round of funding projected to push its market capitalization well beyond $100 billion. This happens as investors in the AI landscape have started raising concerns over exorbitant expenditures on AI projects that seemingly struggle to generate notable profits amid claims that AI is a fad and that 30% of its projects will be abandoned by 2025 after proof of concept.
We already know OpenAI spends over $700,000 daily to keep ChatGPT running, not accounting for the funds allocated to AI’s outrageous power and cooling water demands.
Elsewhere, OpenAI and Microsoft are wrapped up in multiple lawsuits over copyright infringement. However, Sam Altman argues copyright law doesn’t prohibit the use of copyrighted content to train AI models and admits it’s impossible to create tools like ChatGPT without it.
Elon Musk, who helped confound OpenAI, recently filed a lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker and Sam Altman again, citing a stark betrayal of its founding mission and alleged racketeering activities.
