Ilya Sutskever the OpenAI cofounder who helped oust CEO Sam Altman says he deeply regrets his role and threatens to quit unless board resigns

Ilya Sutskever, the cofounder of OpenAI who had a starring role in CEO Sam Altman’s ouster last week, now says he “deeply regrets” his actions—and is even threatening to quit. 

Silicon Valley has been captivated by the shocking Friday dismissal and quick comeback of Altman, who was summarily sacked by the board nearly a year to the day after the launch of ChatGPT, precipitating a staff exodus and a standoff between OpenAI’s board and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the startup’s biggest strategic shareholder. 

“I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions. I never intended to harm OpenAI,” Sutskever wrote on Monday, breaking his silence on the matter. “I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”

As chief scientist and a member of OpenAI’s board, Sutskever was believed to play the role of board ringleader, exploiting a strategic disagreement over how quickly to commercialize generative AI. According to anonymous sources who spoke to Bloomberg, Altman and Sutskever were at odds about how fast to move to commercialize AI, and how to reduce possible public harm; this came to a head during this month’s first-ever developer day.

Read full article here