Ilya Sutskever
Mentioned in 47 analyzed podcast episodes across 10 shows
A pioneering AI researcher and former OpenAI Chief Scientist who co-authored the Transformer paper and co-founded OpenAI after leaving Google, where he was a protégé of Geoffrey Hinton. He recently departed OpenAI to found Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), positioning himself as a key figure in the debate over AI safety and the shift from scaling-focused development to research-driven paradigms. Podcasts discuss him as an exemplary n-of-1 talent shaping the competitive landscape of AI development and the future direction of superintelligence research.
Appears On
Episode Appearances
"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis · Apr 15, 2026
Welcome to AI in the AM: RL for EE, Oversight w/out Nationalization, & the first AI-Run Retail Store
“Mentioned as signatory to AI extinction risk statement regarding extinction-level AI risks”
Elon Musk Podcast · Apr 13, 2026
The firebombing of Sam Altman's house
“Internal memos surfaced in New Yorker profile alleging Altman's pattern of dishonesty”
Offline with Jon Favreau · Apr 11, 2026
Sam Altman's Big Little Lies
“Swing vote in 2023 board decision to fire Altman; sent detailed memos to board explaining concerns; now runs Safe Super Alignment company”
Hard Fork · Apr 10, 2026
Anthropic’s Cybersecurity Shock Wave + Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz on Their Sam Altman Investigation + One Good Thing
“Created memos documenting concerns about Sam Altman that led to his firing in 2023”
Mile Higher · Apr 2, 2026
387: His Parents Demand Answers... Did OpenAI Cover-Up Suchir Balaji's Death?
“Original board member who ousted Sam Altman but reversed position days later; cited as regretting decision”
"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis · Apr 1, 2026
Success without Dignity? Nathan finds Hope Amidst Chaos, from The Intelligence Horizon Podcast
“Mentioned asking Scott Aaronson about 'Hamiltonian of love' regarding AI alignment challenges”
TBPN · Mar 30, 2026
FULL INTERVIEW: Why I Think Nvidia Is Perfectly Positioned In The AI Race
“Referenced in research vs engineering debate in AI and semiconductor development”
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard · Mar 25, 2026
David Sussillo (on foster care and neuroscience)
“Contributed to AlexNet breakthrough alongside Krizhevsky and Hinton”
Lex Fridman Podcast · Mar 23, 2026
#494 – Jensen Huang: NVIDIA – The $4 Trillion Company & the AI Revolution
“Mentioned for statement about running out of pre-training data, which Jensen refutes with synthetic data arguments.”
The Artificial Intelligence Show · Mar 19, 2026
#204: AI Answers - What Should Stay Human, AI Pricing vs. Labor Cost, Leapfrogging Digitalisation, Getting Legal On Board & Do Reasoning Models Actually Reason?
“Referenced for Atlantic article about swarms of AI agents”
"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis · Feb 25, 2026
Universal Medical Intelligence: OpenAI's Plan to Elevate Human Health, with Karan Singhal
“Former OpenAI researcher referenced for classic question 'how do we teach AI to love humanity'”
AI + a16z · Feb 24, 2026
AI’s Capital Flywheel: Models, Money, and the Future of Power
“SSI founder mentioned as example of n-of-1 AI talent”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Feb 19, 2026
Ben Horowitz: xAI Executive Exodus, Apple's AI Crisis, The Pace of AI | #232
“Former OpenAI CTO founding SSI (Superintelligence) with $2 billion funding requirement”
Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast · Feb 19, 2026
Inside AI’s $10B+ Capital Flywheel — Martin Casado & Sarah Wang of a16z
“Safe Superintelligence founder, example of n-of-one AI researcher”
The a16z Show · Feb 19, 2026
Capital, Compute, and the Fight for AI Dominance
“Safe Superintelligence founder, example of exceptional AI research talent”
Last Week in AI · Feb 6, 2026
#233 - Moltbot, Genie 3, Qwen3-Max-Thinking
“Former OpenAI researcher now at SSI; influential in shift from compute-bottlenecked to insight-bottlenecked paradigm”
十字路口Crossing · Feb 1, 2026
他看到的未来，和我们有什么不一样？| 对话18岁的涂津豪：DeepSeek 前实习生、阿里数竞 AI 组冠军
“Former OpenAI chief scientist; guest references his departure due to insufficient compute allocation for safety research”
The Artificial Intelligence Show · Jan 27, 2026
#193: AGI Talk at Davos, Amazon Layoffs, AI for Course Creation, OpenAI Cybersecurity Warning, New Claude Constitution & Credit-Based AI Pricing
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Jan 23, 2026
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Breaks Down the Three Biggest Trends in Crypto + More from Davos!
Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast · Jan 23, 2026
Captaining IMO Gold, Deep Think, On-Policy RL, Feeling the AGI in Singapore — Yi Tay 2
The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis · Jan 21, 2026
The AI Capabilities Overhang
Pivot · Jan 20, 2026
Betting on Reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour: ACCESS
TBPN · Jan 17, 2026
The Elon vs OpenAI Lawsuit and ads in ChatGPT | Diet TBPN
TBPN · Jan 16, 2026
Elon vs OpenAI, Ads in ChatGPT, Leaked Tech Emails | Sean Frank, Bill Shufelt, Alex Mashrabov, Sonya Huang & Pat Grady
TBPN · Jan 10, 2026
AI Needs a Steve Jobs, Meta’s Nuclear Powerplants, a16z raises $15B | Diet TBPN
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Jan 9, 2026
The 2026 Timeline: AGI Arrival, Safety Concerns, Robotaxi Fleets & Hyperscaler Timelines | 221
Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast · Jan 8, 2026
Artificial Analysis: The Independent LLM Analysis House — with George Cameron and Micah-Hill Smith
Tech Won't Save Us · Jan 8, 2026
We All Suffer from OpenAI’s Pursuit of Scale w/ Karen Hao [Replay]
“OpenAI Chief Scientist; protégé of Geoffrey Hinton who championed scaling paradigm based on belief in computational intelligence”
The a16z Show · Jan 7, 2026
Marc Andreessen's 2026 Outlook: AI Timelines, US vs. China, and The Price of AI
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Jan 6, 2026
Elon Musk on AGI Timeline, US vs China, Job Markets, Clean Energy & Humanoid Robots | 220
Dwarkesh Podcast · Dec 30, 2025
Adam Marblestone – AI is missing something fundamental about the brain
“OpenAI researcher cited for criticizing LLM RL methods as overly simplistic compared to classical approaches”
张小珺Jùn｜商业访谈录 · Dec 24, 2025
127. 大模型季报跨年对谈：和广密预言一场AI War、两大联盟和第三个范式Online Learning
“Referenced as OpenAI's pre-training team lead; noted as key talent in the organization's structure”
Your Undivided Attention · Dec 18, 2025
America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures
“OpenAI researcher who wrote about AGI and superintelligence in early period of AI safety discourse”
The Vergecast · Dec 14, 2025
The end of OpenAI, and other 2026 predictions
“OpenAI co-founder; recently left company; stated 'age of scaling is over' and founded Safe Super Intelligence”
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg · Dec 6, 2025
OpenAI's Code Red, Sacks vs New York Times, New Poverty Line?
“Former OpenAI employee now leading Safe Superintelligence Inc., competing against OpenAI”
The Vergecast · Dec 5, 2025
It's code red for ChatGPT
“Left OpenAI after coup against Altman; argues scaling era is over and research breakthroughs are needed”
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · Dec 4, 2025
The Man Who Wrote The Book On AI: 2030 Might Be The Point Of No Return! We've Been Lied To About AI!
“Former OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist; left company; main safety advocate departure”
The Artificial Intelligence Show · Dec 2, 2025
#183: AI Job Automation, Is There an AI Bubble?, AI Political Divides, ChatGPT Turns 3, Claude Opus 4.5, Google vs. Nvidia & DeepSeek V3.2
Dwarkesh Podcast · Nov 25, 2025
Ilya Sutskever – We're moving from the age of scaling to the age of research
“Chief Scientist at SSI; former OpenAI Chief Scientist; discusses transition from scaling to research era and AI alignment”
Digital Disruption with Geoff Nielson · Nov 24, 2025
How AI Will Save Humanity: Creator of The Last Invention Explains
“Left OpenAI; part of original safety-focused coalition; represents internal departures from leading AI companies”
The Last Invention · Nov 13, 2025
EP 7: The Scouts
“Chief scientist at OpenAI; attended 2015 conference; major figure in AGI development race”
The Last Invention · Oct 16, 2025
EP 4: Speedrun
“OpenAI co-founder; recruited from Google; pushed for game-playing AI; supported aggressive scaling”
The Last Invention · Oct 9, 2025
EP 3: Playing the Wrong Game
“Grad student in Hinton's lab who helped win ImageNet 2012; later co-founded OpenAI”
Acquired · Oct 6, 2025
Google: The AI Company
“Co-author of AlexNet; left Google to co-found OpenAI as chief scientist; key talent loss that catalyzed Google's AI challenges”
Dwarkesh Podcast · Oct 4, 2025
Some thoughts on the Sutton interview
“Gave talk comparing pre-training data to fossil fuels, providing analogy for understanding non-renewable resources as necessary intermediaries”
Acquired · Aug 26, 2025
Alphabet Inc.
“Google Brain researcher; posed question about training massive neural networks; later co-founded OpenAI”
What's Your Problem? · Jul 17, 2025
The AI Pioneer Developing New Kinds of Medicine
“Co-author on Transformer paper who was leaving Google, enabling risk-taking on the project”