--- title: "Elon Musk Trying to Poach Scientist Who Turned on Sam Altman" description: "Elon Musk may be trying to poach Ilya Sutskever, one of his fellow OpenAI cofounders, to work for his bizarre anti-woke AI. " date: "2023-12-11" modified: "2023-12-11" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-poach-ilya-sutskever-openai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "ilya sutskever" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Trying to Poach Scientist Who Turned on Sam Altman ![Elon Musk may be trying to poach Ilya Sutskever, one of his fellow OpenAI cofounders, to work for his bizarre anti-woke AI. ]() *\Image: Michael M. Santiago via Getty / Futurism\* ## Head Hunter Elon Musk may be trying to poach Ilya Sutskever, one of his fellow OpenAI cofounders, to work for his bizarre anti-woke AI venture. In response to a [tweet from the *Whole Mars Catalog* blog]() about [Sutskever's strange limbo]() at the firm following his backing of the plot to oust CEO Sam Altman, Musk [seemed to suggest]() that he could see the Russian-born scientist working at xAI. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1733416090439451114 This isn't the first time Musk has expressed accolades, in his way, for Sutskever. "Ilya has a good moral compass and does not seek power," the [SpaceX CEO tweeted]() soon after Sutskever and two of his fellow board members fired Altman. "He would not take such drastic action unless he felt it was absolutely necessary." ## Trust Issues In the interim, however, things haven't exactly been great for Sutskever since he maneuvered to remove Altman ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. The would-be coup failed, [Altman returned](), and [Sutskever ended up stepping down]() from OpenAI's board of directors. According to in-the-know sources [cited by *Business Insider*](), the chief scientist's future at the firm remains awfully unclear following his backstabbing. "Once trust is broken," one former OpenAI staffer told the website, "it cannot be regained." Be that as it may — and likely is — Musk does have a track record for poaching the [AI doomer]() in question. As biographer Walter Isaacson wrote in his [hit book about the billionaire]() published earlier this year, [Musk convinced Sutskever to jump ship]() from Google back in 2015, offering him a $1.9 million salary and a starting bonus to help him and Altman cofound OpenAI. That poaching apparently ticked off his former friend Larry Page, who was the CEO of Google at the time. "Larry felt betrayed and was really mad at me for personally recruiting Ilya," Musk recounted to Isaacson, "and he refused to hang out with me anymore." Though there wasn't a ton of detail about it in the book, part of Sutskever's move from Google to OpenAI had to do with the former's lax approach to AI safety — which seems to be the same [reason he tried to oust Altman]() in the first place. **More on Elon's AI:** [*Elon Musk Vows to Lobotomize His AI So It Stops Being Left Wing*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()