OpenAI Chief Scientist Who Quit Months After Helping Briefly Oust Sam Altman Likely To Join Elon Musk's xAI, Says Munster: 'There's A 60% Chance'

OpenAI‘s chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who announced departure from his post on Wednesday, might now be heading to Elon Musk’s xAI, according to Deepwater Asset Management‘s managing partner, Gene Munster.

What Happened: Munster took to X, formerly Twitter, and suggested that Sutskever’s departure from OpenAI could lead him to Musk’s xAI. He pointed out that Sutskever had already planned his next move and expressed excitement about a project that is personally significant to him.

“My sense is the writing was on the wall since Nov-23 when Ilya regrettably recommended the board remove Sam Altman. Despite that misstep, he is still one of the world’s greatest AI talents,” Munster stated.

He added, “My sense is there’s a 60% chance he ends up at xAI. Elon’s determined to advance Grok, his ‘truth seeking’ foundation model, and needs world-class talent. The question is; is building a truth-seeking model ‘personally meaningful’ to Ilya? I don't know the answer,” Munster wrote.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also reacted to Sutskever leaving the company saying that it’s “very sad.” On the other hand, Musk replied to a meme video making fun of Altman’s mixed feelings about Sutskever’s departure, showing that he doesn’t believe that the OpenAI CEO is sad.

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Why It Matters: Sutskever’s departure from OpenAI comes after a series of significant events at the artificial intelligence giant. Last year in November, amidst a rebellion by its staff and top executives, Sutskever led OpenAI’s board in firing CEO Altman and removing Greg Brockman as the company’s president.

He later expressed regret for his actions and vowed to reunite the company. “I deeply regret my participation in the board's actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI,” Sutskever said at the time.

His departure also led to Musk recalling how he holds Sutskever in such high regard that he broke his friendship with Alphabet Inc.‘s co-founder Larry Page over it. That being said, the Tesla CEO did not give any direct answer to users asking him to hire Sutskever.

Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and subsequently left it in 2018 over a difference of opinion about the company’s leadership. The tech mogul filed a lawsuit against the company and its CEO in March earlier this year, alleging that OpenAI betrayed its “Founding Agreement.”

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.