Sutskever to lead Safe Superintelligence after Meta poaches CEO Gross in AI talent war
(Reuters) -Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry.
Gross has joined Meta Platforms to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters.
The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence.
Meta had also attempted to recruit Ilya Sutskever and acquire SSI, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
"You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever said in a post on X. SSI raised $1 billion in cash last year to build advanced AI systems designed to safely exceed human intelligence.
Gross did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, to unify the company's AI efforts, following setbacks with its Llama 4 model and key staff departures.
The unit will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale and ramped up efforts to recruit top AI talent.
Gross and Friedman are known to be close, having co-founded the venture capital firm NFDG — named after their initials. The firm has backed high-profile startups including Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity and Figma.
Apple acquired Gross's startup, Cue, in 2013 for its predictive search and AI technology, after which Gross joined the iPhone maker as a director, overseeing machine learning and artificial intelligence.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Exclusive-Google's AI Overviews hit by EU antitrust complaint from independent publishers
FILE PHOTO: Google logo, EU flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google has been hit by an EU antitrust complaint over its AI Overviews from a group of independent publishers, which has also asked for an interim measure to prevent allegedly irreparable harm to them, according to a document seen by Reuters. Google's AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional hyperlinks to relevant webpages and are shown to users in more than 100 countries. It began adding advertisements to AI Overviews last May. The company is making its biggest bet by integrating AI into search but the move has sparked concerns from some content providers such as publishers. The Independent Publishers Alliance document, dated June 30, sets out a complaint to the European Commission and alleges that Google abuses its market power in online search. "Google's core search engine service is misusing web content for Google's AI Overviews in Google Search, which have caused, and continue to cause, significant harm to publishers, including news publishers in the form of traffic, readership and revenue loss," the document said. It said Google positions its AI Overviews at the top of its general search engine results page to display its own summaries which are generated using publisher material and it alleges that Google's positioning disadvantages publishers' original content. "Publishers using Google Search do not have the option to opt out from their material being ingested for Google's AI large language model training and/or from being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google's general search results page," the complaint said. The Commission declined to comment. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority confirmed receipt of the complaint. Google said it sends billions of clicks to websites each day. "New AI experiences in Search enable people to ask even more questions, which creates new opportunities for content and businesses to be discovered," a Google spokesperson said. The Independent Publishers Alliance's website says it is a nonprofit community advocating for independent publishers, which it does not name. The Movement for an Open Web, whose members include digital advertisers and publishers, and British non-profit Foxglove Legal Community Interest Company, which says it advocates for fairness in the tech world, are also signatories to the complaint. They said an interim measure was necessary to prevent serious irreparable harm to competition and to ensure access to news. Google said numerous claims about traffic from search are often based on highly incomplete and skewed data. "The reality is that sites can gain and lose traffic for a variety of reasons, including seasonal demand, interests of users, and regular algorithmic updates to Search," the Google spokesperson said. Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said journalists and publishers face a dire situation. "Independent news faces an existential threat: Google's AI Overviews," she told Reuters. "That's why with this complaint, Foxglove and our partners are urging the European Commission, along with other regulators around the world, to take a stand and allow independent journalism to opt out," Curling said. The three groups have filed a similar complaint and a request for an interim measure to the UK competition authority. The complaints echoed a U.S. lawsuit by a U.S. edtech company which said Google's AI Overviews is eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers' ability to compete that have resulted in a drop in visitors and subscribers. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee. Editing by Jane Merriman)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Australia says US missile purchase shows commitment to defence spending
FILE PHOTO: Erika Olson, Charge d'Affaires, for the United States Embassy in Australia with Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles, and Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy, at the Avalon Air Show, in Victoria, Australia March 24, 2025. Conroy has confirmed the purchase of AIM-120C-8 and AIM-120D-3 missiles, developed by American defence company Raytheon Technologies. - Reuters SYDNEY: Australia said its A$2 billion (US$1.3 billion) purchase of supersonic missiles from the United States underscores its commitment to defence spending, though Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has resisted US calls to agree to a target of 3.5 per cent. Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy on Thursday (July 3) confirmed the purchase of AIM-120C-8 and AIM-120D-3 missiles, developed by American defence company Raytheon Technologies. They will be used by Australia's F/A-18 and F-35 fighter jets and a new army brigade focused on striking aerial targets up to 500 kilometres away, he added. Albanese, who is yet to meet President Donald Trump, has rebuffed a US request to agree to lift long-term defence spending to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product. It's forecast to rise to 2.3 per cent by 2033. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who met with her US counterpart Marco Rubio on Tuesday in Washington, said Australia took a "capability approach" and had already committed to the largest peacetime increase in defence funding. "I know there will be more capability required, I think we all understand that, and we will fund the capability Australia needs," she said on Thursday in a television interview with Sky News Australia. Albanese's scheduled meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the G7 was cancelled when Trump left the summit early due to tensions between Israel and Iran. Wong said the security allies were working to reschedule a leaders' meeting. Seeking to respond to China's build-up of its military, Albanese pledged A$74 billion (US$47 billion) last year to buy missiles from Europe and the US, including A$21 billion to establish a Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise in Australia. The sale of 400 missiles to Australia through the US foreign military sales programme was notified to the US Congress in April. A further US$2 billion proposed sale of US electronic warfare systems and equipment for Australia's F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler fighter jets was notified in June. - Reuters
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Saudi Aramco considers power assets sale to raise billions
DUBAI: Saudi oil giant Aramco is looking to sell up to five gas-fired power plants, three sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, part of a broader effort to free up funds that could generate tens of billions of dollars. The potential sale of four or five gas-fired plants that power refineries could alone raise around US$4 billion as the Saudi government pushes Aramco to increase profits and payouts to the state, two of the sources said. Aramco, the world's most profitable company and the main source of Saudi state income, has been looking to sell some assets, improve efficiency and cut costs, Reuters has reported. The company will also slash dividend payouts by nearly a third this year as lower oil prices hit its income. The state, which directly owns 81.5 per cent of Aramco, is heavily reliant on the payouts, which include royalties and taxes. Besides the sale of the gas-fired plants, the company could divest assets such as housing compounds and pipelines, two of the sources said. Port infrastructure assets could also be up for sale, one of them and a third person said. Aramco declined to comment on the potential asset sales and had no immediate comment on the amount of money the fundraising drive could yield. The Saudi government communications office did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters could not determine a timeline for the sale. The three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is private. Local businesses like Saudi utility firms could be interested buyers, one of the people said. Aramco fully or partly owned 18 power plants and related infrastructure locally supplying energy to its gas plants and refineries, according to its 2024 financial report. Other power plants are expected to come onstream soon. The Tanajib Gas Plant project is expected to start operations this year. The potential asset sales by Aramco coincide with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's planned massive domestic projects to diversify the economy from oil while facing pressure from tumbling crude prices. Oil receipts made up 62 per cent of state revenues last year with the Saudi budget showing a deficit of more than US$30 billion in 2024 despite a US$199 billion windfall from Aramco. Aramco sold US$5 billion of bonds in May and signalled more borrowing. The country is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into projects including showpiece events like the Expo 2030 world fair and soccer's FIFA World Cup 2034. Aramco is also seeking to raise funds for infrastructure by bringing in investors, Reuters reported in May.
