OpenAI’s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever (right), and former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in June 2023.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
OpenAI’s Ilya Sutskever had a dramatic reversal regarding the ousting of his cofounder, Sam Altman.The U-turn came after an emotional plea from cofounder Greg Brockman’s wife, the WSJ reported.Sutskever officiated the couple’s wedding in 2019.
Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist and a cofounder of OpenAI, expressed remorse on Monday for his role in ousting Sam Altman as the CEO of the company.
“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI,” Sutskever wrote on X. “I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”
His change of heart came after conversations with staff and with OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman’s wife, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Anna Brockman — who married Greg Brockman in 2019 — cried and pleaded with Sutskever to change his mind, per the WSJ. It’s not clear what else contributed to Sutskever’s reversal.
Greg Brockman was formerly the president of OpenAI. He resigned in solidarity with Altman and wrote in a post on X on Saturday that it was Sutskever who told Altman he was being fired.
Sutskever has since added his name to an open letter signed by nearly all of OpenAI’s employees, calling on the board to resign and bring back Altman.
Ilya Sutskever officiated Greg and Anna Brockman’s civil ceremony, which was held in OpenAI offices and featured a robotic hand as the ring bearer, per Greg Brockman’s posts on Twitter at the time.
Held our civil ceremony in the @OpenAI office last week. Officiated by @ilyasut, with the robot hand serving as ring bearer. Wedding planning to commence soon. pic.twitter.com/cfSvY7uniV
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) November 12, 2019
The relationship between OpenAI’s cofounders go way back. Sutskever was a former researcher at Google Brain, before Elon Musk and Sam Altman poached him in 2015 to cofound OpenAI with them.
Talks to reinstate Altman at OpenAI collapsed on Sunday. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced on Monday that Altman and Brockman were joining Microsoft to head a new AI research team.
Anna Brockman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent through Greg Brockman and outside regular business hours.