Ilya Sutskever has taken over leadership at Safe Superintelligence (SSI) following the departure of CEO Daniel Gross, who left to join Meta Platforms amid a fierce competition for AI talent.

Meta's recruitment strategy has included substantial financial incentives, offering multi-million-dollar packages to attract top professionals in the AI sector.

This aggressive hiring approach, including the recruitment of Gross, is a response to internal challenges at Meta, which has faced a significant loss of talent, including its original AI team.

In his new role, Sutskever emphasized SSI's strengths, asserting, 'We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do,' as the company focuses on developing safe superintelligent AI.

SSI's mission is centered on creating AI systems that prioritize safety and ethical considerations, contrasting with the industry's trend of scaling models without sufficient safety measures.

Founded in June 2024, SSI has rapidly gained attention in the AI sector, raising over $3 billion and achieving a valuation of $32 billion, despite not yet having public products or demos.

Sutskever's leadership is crucial for SSI as he assumes both CEO and chief scientist roles, ensuring the company remains committed to its mission of developing safe superintelligent AI systems.

Despite interest from larger companies like Meta in acquiring SSI, Sutskever has firmly declined these offers, reinforcing the startup's commitment to independence.

The leadership change, which includes the promotion of co-founder Daniel Levy to president, reflects SSI's strategy to maintain continuity while navigating external competitive pressures.

In a message to the team and investors, Sutskever expressed gratitude to Gross for his contributions and reiterated the company's focus on independence amid acquisition rumors.

As SSI continues to develop its technologies, it faces challenges such as securing new capital and attracting top talent, while Sutskever leads the technical team.

Sutskever's previous experience at OpenAI, particularly during a tumultuous period involving leadership changes, underscores his commitment to AI safety and the motivations behind launching SSI.