Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a new AI startup from Openai co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is using Google Cloud’s TPU chips to enhance AI research.
According to Google Cloud, SSI uses TPUs to “accelerate research and development efforts towards building safe and close AI.”
Cloud providers are chasing several unicorn AI startups that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on computing power each year to train AI Foundation models. SSI’s deal with Google Cloud suggests that the former will spend most of your computing budget on Google Cloud. A familiar source tells TechCrunch that Google Cloud is SSI’s leading computing provider.
Google Cloud has a history of strike computing transactions with previous AI researchers, many of which currently run multi-billion dollar AI startups. (Sutskever once worked for Google.) In October, Google Cloud said that it would become the leading computing provider for World Labs, founded by FEI-FEI Li, the chief scientist of Ex-Google Cloud AI.
It is unclear whether SSI has attacked partnerships with other cloud or computing providers. A Google Cloud spokesman declined to comment. A safe Superintelligence spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SSI came out of stealth in June 2024 after Sutskever left Openai’s Chief Scientist role. The company receives $1 billion in support from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, SV Angel and others.
Since the launch of SSI, I have heard little about the startup activity. SSI states on its website that developing a secure, close AI system is “as our only focus, as it is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap.” Sutskever previously stated that it was identifying “new mountains to climb” and investigating new ways to improve the performance of frontier AI models.
Sutskever spent several years at Google Brain Researching Neural Networks before co-founding Openai. Sutskever played a key role in the expulsion of Openai CEO Sam Altman in November 2023 after leading Openai AI safety work for years. Satzkiber later joined the employee movement and revived Altman as CEO.
After the ordeal, Sutskever was reportedly not seen in Openai’s office for several months and eventually left the startup to start an SSI.
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