148 | 🧭 📍 Ilya: AI's soul?

In today’s Brainyacts:

1. Who is Ilya?

2. Google cracks open OpenAI’s training data and more AI model news

3. JPMorgan is making $ with AI and other related content

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Lead Memo

🚨 🧭 📍 Why you should know Ilya Sutskever. He might be the soul of AI.

Recent developments at OpenAI have marked a significant shift in the organization's leadership and direction, particularly affecting Ilya Sutskever, one of its co-founders. Sutskever, who was a key board member of OpenAI, has been central to several major changes within the company.

Ilya Sutskever is a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence, particularly known for his work in deep learning and neural networks. He is one of the co-founders of OpenAI.

Before co-founding OpenAI, Sutskever had an impressive career in AI research. He worked at Google as part of the Google Brain team, where he contributed significantly to the development of deep learning technologies. His move from Google to OpenAI is particularly noteworthy, as it was influenced by Elon Musk, who convinced Sutskever of the potential impact and importance of establishing OpenAI. Mainly that building closed system like Google is not in the interest of humanity.

OpenAI was to be a non-profit and share its underlying tech and data. This is not the case anymore. Also, Musk famously got into an argument with Larry Page (of Google) where Page called Musk a “specist” - as in one who is biased toward their own species (humanity). Musk couldn’t have agreed more. This set off Elon’s move to build OpenAI. And IIlya joining in belief and effort.

A notable event was the firing of Sam Altman, which was speculated to be partly due to disagreements over the commitment to AI safety and building responsible models that don’t pose risks to humanity. This decision was not without controversy. Sutskever, in a company all-hands meeting following the board meeting, stated that firing Altman was "the board doing its duty". However, he later expressed regret over his participation in Altman's ousting. The aftermath of these events led to the resignation of three senior researchers from OpenAI and, eventually, to Sutskever stepping down from the board.

In a surprising turn, Sam Altman returned as CEO of OpenAI, bringing back key figures like Greg Brockman as President and Mira Murati as CTO, along with new board members. However, Sutskever’s role within the company remains uncertain. While he is no longer on the board, Altman, in a press release, expressed admiration and respect for Sutskever, stating that they hope to continue their working relationship and are discussing ways for Sutskever to remain involved with OpenAI.

The new board of OpenAI now includes Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora, Bret Taylor, former Salesforce CEO, and Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary. Sutskever’s absence from the restructured board and his non-return to a former position within the company have raised questions about the future direction of OpenAI and Sutskever’s role in it.

Adding to the speculation is Sutskever's connection with Elon Musk, who initially influenced him to leave Google for OpenAI. Given Musk's involvement in AI initiatives like X.ai and Grok AI, there is speculation that Sutskever might reunite with Musk in a new venture, although this remains unconfirmed.

These events suggest a potential shift in OpenAI's approach to generative AI, contrasting possibly with Sutskever's cautious stance. However, two senior researchers from Sutskever’s team, Jakub Pachocki and Szymon Sidor, who were involved in developing the Q* model – a significant breakthrough for OpenAI – have returned to the organization.

Sutskever's future involvement with OpenAI or potential collaboration with Elon Musk's AI projects remains a topic of interest and speculation within the AI community. His influence and contributions to the field of AI, particularly in the development of generative AI technologies, continue to be highly regarded.

And he is known for having a heightened sense of obligation to build responsible AI. How involvement in any AI company would be influenced by that.

For a deep dive on Ilya, listen to the Lex Fridman interview

AI Model Notables

► Yesterday was ChatGPT’s 1st anniversary and we learned its mobile apps have topped 110M installs and nearly $30M in revenue

► Sam Altman returns as CEO, OpenAI has a new initial board

► Microsoft has announced a huge $3.2B investment in the UK’s AI infrastructure. Australia got $5B months ago. What nation is next?

► Google is watermarking AI-generated content

► Google Search is showing misinformative AI images once again

► A bit geeky but amazing - Meta introduced Seamless Communication for real-time foreign language translations

► Meta Sues FTC, calling the agency's in-house trials unconstitutional'

► Google researchers’ attack prompts ChatGPT to reveal its training data

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Who is the author, Josh Kubicki?

Some of you know me. Others do not. Here is a short intro. I am a lawyer, entrepreneur, and teacher. I have transformed legal practices and built multi-million dollar businesses. Not a theorist, I am an applied researcher and former Chief Strategy Officer, recognized by Fast Company and Bloomberg Law for my unique work. Through this newsletter, I offer you pragmatic insights into leveraging AI to inform and improve your daily life in legal services.