A three-month-old artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s eye-popping $1 billion funding round could signal a shift in how the technology affects commerce.
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has secured this massive investment with only 10 employees. The company, launched in June by Sutskever along with Daniel Gross, a former Y Combinator partner who previously led AI efforts at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former colleague of Sutskever’s at OpenAI, is focusing on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) with an emphasis on safety.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about increasing profits, reducing losses, and mitigating risk. In many use cases where AI can model the problem or historical data, it can provide significant benefits,” Shoab Khan, chancellor of the Sir Syed CASE Institute of Technology, told PYMNTS.
The funding round saw participation from NFDG, a venture capital firm run by Gross and Nat Friedman, alongside tech investment heavyweights Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel. This substantial investment in such a young company underscores the growing interest and high stakes in the race to develop advanced AI systems.
The company plans to use the funds partly for hiring, seeking to assemble what it calls “a lean, cracked team of the world’s best engineers and researchers.”
The 37-year-old Sutskever brings considerable experience to the venture. After completing his Ph.D. under renowned AI academic Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto, he joined Google in 2013 before co-founding OpenAI in 2015. His departure from OpenAI followed a tumultuous period involving him in CEO Sam Altman’s brief ousting.
While SSI has not yet partnered with any cloud providers or chipmakers, a significant portion of the investment is earmarked for building up computing power. Sutskever has indicated that SSI’s approach to scaling will differ from that of OpenAI, though specifics remain undisclosed.
The focus on safety in AI development comes at a time of increasing discourse about advanced AI systems’ potential risks and rewards. Sutskever’s experience leading a safety team at OpenAI that oversaw AI’s existential risks may inform SSI’s approach, although that team was disbanded shortly after his departure.
According to Khan, AI in commerce has limitations: “This depends on accurately modeling data probability distribution. In cases where data doesn’t follow a clear distribution or depends on many factors — some of which are difficult to measure, such as predicting bitcoin prices — AI’s effectiveness is limited.”
Despite challenges, there is optimism about AI’s potential in business. “I see substantial advantages for investors in supporting AI for decision-making in commerce by building complex models, incorporating all relevant factors and data, and reshaping the role of human oversight and trust,” Khan said.
Companies pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities increase the potential for transforming business practices. The substantial investment in SSI and similar ventures signals a growing recognition of the potential transformative power of advanced AI systems in the business world.
The $5 billion valuation of SSI, a company just three months old, reflects the high expectations and potential that investors see in advanced AI technologies. This valuation puts SSI in the upper echelons of AI startups, competing with more established players.
Research and development efforts at SSI are just beginning, and the broader implications for commerce and industry remain to be seen. The company’s focus on safety in AGI development could set new standards for the industry, potentially influencing how other companies approach AI development and implementation.
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