Ilya Sutskever is a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence and deep learning, best known for his co-invention of AlexNet—a breakthrough convolutional neural network that significantly advanced image recognition technology. Born on December 8, 1986, in Russia, Sutskever moved to Israel with his family at age five and later emigrated to Canada, where he completed his academic studies.
Sutskever earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, followed by a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Toronto, where he studied under the renowned machine learning pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. His Ph.D. research was pivotal in shaping modern AI, culminating in the development of AlexNet with Hinton and Alex Krizhevsky in 2012. The success of AlexNet, driven by its ability to harness the power of GPUs for deep learning, propelled Sutskever to the forefront of AI research.
After a brief stint as a postdoc at Stanford University with Andrew Ng, Sutskever joined Google Brain and contributed to groundbreaking projects, including the creation of the sequence-to-sequence learning algorithm, which revolutionized natural language processing (NLP). He also co-authored the paper on AlphaGo, the AI that famously defeated human world champions in the complex game of Go.
In 2015, Sutskever co-founded OpenAI, where he served as Chief Scientist. His leadership helped shape the development of some of the world’s most sophisticated AI models, including ChatGPT. Sutskever’s work also extended into AI safety, and in 2023, he co-led OpenAI’s Superalignment project, an initiative aimed at aligning future superintelligent AI systems with human values.
However, Sutskever's tenure at OpenAI was marked by controversy. In late 2023, he played a central role in the board's decision to oust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—a move that was later reversed, with Altman reinstated and Sutskever stepping down from the board.
In 2024, Sutskever left OpenAI and co-founded Safe Superintelligence Inc., a company dedicated to developing safe AI. The company, based in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, raised $1 billion in funding within months of its launch, signaling strong support for its mission.
Sutskever has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including being named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 in 2015 and being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2022. Today, Sutskever continues to be a leading voice in both AI innovation and safety, with a particular focus on the responsible development of superintelligence.
