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Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI cofounder and its longtime chief scientist, left the company in May 2024, months after taking part in the board decision to remove Sam Altman as CEO. Sutskever later regretted that decision and supported efforts to bring Altman back. The sequence is documented; the claim that the boardroom fight caused Sutskever’s departure is not.
Who is Ilya Sutskever?
Sutskever is a deep-learning researcher, OpenAI cofounder and former chief scientist. He helped shape the company’s research culture and large-model work. OpenAI described him as having led many of its most important projects when it announced his departure and named Jakub Pachocki as his successor. OpenAI’s announcement provides the company’s account of the transition.
He was also closely associated with AI alignment and safety work. In July 2023, OpenAI introduced Superalignment, an initiative co-led by Sutskever and Jan Leike to develop ways to steer and control systems more capable than humans. OpenAI said it would dedicate 20% of its secured compute capacity to the effort. That commitment and the team’s stated purpose are described in OpenAI’s Superalignment announcement. Sutskever and Sam Altman had also been among the authors of OpenAI’s May 2023 proposals on governing superintelligence (OpenAI).
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsWhat did Sutskever mean by saying neural networks might be conscious?
In a February 2022 post, Sutskever wrote that “today’s large neural networks” might be “slightly conscious.” The brief remark raised a possibility; it did not define consciousness, offer a test for it or establish that a particular product had subjective experience. The original comment is discussed in Futurism’s May 15, 2024 article.
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Several different questions are easily conflated when discussing AI consciousness:
- Functional intelligence: Can a system produce useful outputs or solve problems?
- Self-modeling: Does it represent aspects of its own state or behavior?
- Phenomenal consciousness: Is there something it feels like to be that system?
- Moral status: If a system had experiences, would they matter ethically?
Evidence of capable language or problem-solving does not, by itself, answer the question of subjective experience. Nor does the broad phrase “neural network” mean that every such model has the same properties. Sutskever’s comment is best read as speculation about a difficult philosophical and scientific question, not as a finding that AI systems are conscious.
What happened when OpenAI’s board removed Sam Altman?
On November 17, 2023, OpenAI announced that Altman would leave his role as CEO and the board. The board’s public statement said he had not been “consistently candid” in communications with it, impairing its ability to exercise its responsibilities. That was the board’s stated rationale, not a detailed public account of every disagreement behind the decision. The announcement is available from OpenAI.
The decision was made by the board of OpenAI, Inc., the nonprofit entity overseeing the organization’s activities. Sutskever was one of its directors; he did not remove Altman acting alone. Contemporary reporting by The Washington Post describes Sutskever as a participant in the vote and reports that he played a prominent role in communicating the decision to Altman.
The public announcement did not fully explain what prompted the board’s action. Governance, management and AI-safety concerns were discussed in coverage of the crisis, but the available official statement cited candor in communications. It does not establish that safety was the sole reason for the removal.
Did Sutskever lead a coup against Altman?
“Coup” is a dramatic description of a sudden internal power struggle, not a neutral corporate or legal term. Sutskever was an important participant in a collective board decision, and reporting says he helped convey that decision to Altman. Calling him the sole architect—or saying he personally fired Altman—overstates what those facts establish.
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The story also changed quickly. In November, Sutskever publicly expressed regret about participating in the board’s action and supported efforts to reunite the company. The Washington Post’s account describes his role in that reversal as well as the board vote.
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Why did Altman return?
Employees and investors exerted intense pressure after the announcement, and employees backed efforts to restore Altman. On November 29, OpenAI announced that Altman would return as CEO under a new initial board. The announcement also said Sutskever would no longer serve on the board. OpenAI’s return announcement records those changes.
The reversal left Sutskever in a striking position: he had taken part in removing Altman, then regretted the action and supported the effort to bring him back. He remained at OpenAI for several more months, but did not return to his former board role. The public record does not establish his private motivations for changing position.
What did Superalignment have to do with the conflict?
Superalignment helps explain why some observers connected the leadership dispute to disagreements about AI risk and the pace of development. But the initiative’s existence does not prove that a safety dispute caused Altman’s removal or Sutskever’s later departure.
After Sutskever and Leike left in May 2024, contemporary reporting said OpenAI’s Superalignment team had been disbanded (Axios). OpenAI subsequently announced a new safety and security committee, as reported by Axios. A change in team structure is relevant context, but it is not evidence that OpenAI stopped all safety work.
Why did Sutskever leave OpenAI?
OpenAI announced Sutskever’s departure on May 14, 2024, and said Pachocki would become chief scientist. The announcement did not give a detailed reason, saying Sutskever intended to pursue something personally meaningful. Altman praised his contributions and called him one of the “greatest minds” of his generation. The company’s announcement does not characterize the departure as a firing or connect it to the Altman episode.
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In a departure message reported by TechCrunch and the Associated Press, Sutskever said he was confident OpenAI would build artificial general intelligence that was safe and beneficial. That statement complicates the idea that he left after publicly concluding the company could not be trusted to do safe work. The timing may invite speculation about a link to the boardroom conflict or safety disagreements, but the public announcements do not establish either as the cause.
What the headline gets right—and what it implies
- Right: Sutskever made a qualified comment about the possible consciousness of large neural networks, participated in the board action against Altman, and later left OpenAI.
- Needs qualification: He did not act alone; the board made the removal decision collectively.
- Not established: His speculative remark was not proof that current AI systems are conscious, and the sequence of events does not prove that the Altman conflict caused his resignation.
In June 2024, Sutskever announced a new company, Safe Superintelligence, focused on developing safe superintelligence, according to Axios. That later step gives context to his continuing public association with AI safety, but it does not retroactively supply a reason for his OpenAI departure.
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