• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 14, 2024

One day after OpenAI announced its conversational AI GPT-4o model that can see, hear and analyze, the company’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever said he is stepping down.

OpenAI Research Director Jakub Pachocki will replace Sutskever, who is part of the founding team.

“After almost a decade, I have made the decision to leave OpenAI,” Sutskever wrote in a post on X. “The company’s trajectory has been nothing short of miraculous.”

“I’m confident that OpenAI will build AGI that is both safe and beneficial under the leadership of @sama, @gdb, @miramurati, and now, under the excellent research leadership of @merettm.”

Sutskever did not share what will come next for him, describing it only as a project that is very personally meaningful. He eventually plans to share details.

Colleagues took to X to show their appreciation of Sutskever. In response to Sutskever’s post, Jakub Pachocki, computer scientist, expressed his gratitude in a post.

He wrote: “Ilya introduced me to the world of deep learning research, and has been a mentor to me, and a great collaborator for many years. His incredible vision for what deep learning could become was foundational to what OpenAI, and the field of AI, is today.”

Pachocki also took part in the brief but dramatic ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in November.