Technology

OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change

Published

1 year ago

December 14, 2024

OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change

OpenAI’s cofounder and former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, made headlines earlier this year after he left to start his own AI lab called Safe Superintelligence Inc. He has avoided the limelight since his departure but made a rare public appearance in Vancouver on Friday at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).

“Pre-training as we know it will unquestionably end,” Sutskever said onstage. This refers to the first phase of AI model development, when a large language model learns patterns from vast amounts of unlabeled data — typically text from the internet, books, and other sources.

“We’ve achieved peak data and there’ll be no more.”

During his NeurIPS talk, Sutskever said that, while he believes existing data can still take AI development farther, the industry is tapping out on new data to train on. This dynamic will, he said, eventually force a shift away from the way models are trained today. He compared the situation to fossil fuels: just as oil is a finite resource, the internet contains a finite amount of human-generated content.

“We’ve achieved peak data and there’ll be no more,” according to Sutskever. “We have to deal with the data that we have. There’s only one internet.”

Ilya Sutskever calls data the “fossil fuel” of AI.

Ilya Sutskever/NeurIPS

Next-generation models, he predicted, are going to “be agentic in a real ways.” Agents have become a real buzzword in the AI field. While Sutskever didn’t define them during his talk, they are commonly understood to be an autonomous AI system that performs tasks, makes decisions, and interacts with software on its own.

Along with being “agentic,” he said future systems will also be able to reason. Unlike today’s AI, which mostly pattern-matches based on what a model has seen before, future AI systems will be able to work things out step-by-step in a way that is more comparable to thinking.

Do you work at OpenAI? I’d love to chat. You can reach me securely on Signal @kylie.01 or via email at kylie@theverge.com.

The more a system reasons, “the more unpredictable it becomes,” according to Sutskever. He compared the unpredictability of “truly reasoning systems” to how advanced AIs that play chess “are unpredictable to the best human chess players.”

“They will understand things from limited data,” he said. “They will not get confused.”

On stage, he drew a comparison between the scaling of AI systems and evolutionary biology, citing research that shows the relationship between brain and body mass across species. He noted that while most mammals follow one scaling pattern, hominids (human ancestors) show a distinctly different slope in their brain-to-body mass ratio on logarithmic scales.

He suggested that, just as evolution found a new scaling pattern for hominid brains, AI might similarly discover new approaches to scaling beyond how pre-training works today.

Ilya Sutskever compares the scaling of AI systems and evolutionary biology.

Ilya Sutskever/NeurIPS

After Sutskever concluded his talk, an audience member asked him how researchers can create the right incentive mechanisms for humanity to create AI in a way that gives it “the freedoms that we have as homosapiens.”

“I feel like in some sense those are the kind of questions that people should be reflecting on more,” Sutskever responded. He paused for a moment before saying that he doesn’t “feel confident answering questions like this” because it would require a “top down government structure.” The audience member suggested cryptocurrency, which made others in the room chuckle.

“I don’t feel like I am the right person to comment on cryptocurrency but there is a chance what you [are] describing will happen,” Sutskever said. “You know, in some sense, it’s not a bad end result if you have AIs and all they want is to coexist with us and also just to have rights. Maybe that will be fine… I think things are so incredibly unpredictable. I hesitate to comment but I encourage the speculation.”

Technology

Betterment’s financial app sends customers a $10,000 crypto scam message

Published

6 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

Betterment’s financial app sends customers a ,000 crypto scam message

We’ll triple your crypto! (Limited Time)

Bryan: Betterment is giving back!

We’re celebrating our best-performing year yet by tripling Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits for the next three hours.

For example, if you send $10,000 in Bitcoin or Ethereum, we’ll send you right back $30,000 to your sending Bitcoin or Ethereum address.

Send deposits to these addresses:

Technology

Fox News AI Newsletter: 10 showstopping CES innovations

Published

7 hours ago

January 10, 2026

Press Room

The LG CLOiD robot and the LG OLED evo AI Wallpaper TV are displayed onstage during an LG Electronics news conference at CES 2026, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Welcome to Fox News’ Artificial Intelligence newsletter with the latest AI technology advancements.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER:

– CES 2026 showstoppers: 10 gadgets you have to see
– Construction giant unveils AI to help prevent job site accidents: ‘It’s essentially a personal assistant’
– Fox News gets exclusive look at company helping businesses nationwide harness AI-powered robots to boost efficiency and fill labor gaps

CES 2026 put health tech front and center, with companies showcasing smarter ways to support prevention, mobility and long-term wellness. (CES)

FUTURE IS NOW: Every January, the Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, takes over Las Vegas. It’s where tech companies show off what they’re building next, from products that are almost ready to buy to ideas that feel pulled from the future.

SAFER SITES: Construction equipment giant Caterpillar has unveiled a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to improve job site safety and boost efficiency as the industry grapples with labor shortages.

FUTURE OF WELLNESS: The Consumer Electronics Show, better known as CES, is the world’s largest consumer technology event, and it’s underway in Las Vegas. It takes over the city every January for four days and draws global attention from tech companies, startups, researchers, investors and journalists, of course.

FUTURE OF WORK: As artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving, Fox News got an exclusive look at a company helping businesses nationwide harness AI-powered robots to boost efficiency and fill labor gaps. RobotLAB, with 36 locations across the country and headquartered in Texas, houses more than 50 different types of robots, from cleaning and customer service bots to security bots.

The LG CLOiD robot and the LG OLED evo AI Wallpaper TV are displayed onstage during an LG Electronics news conference at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2026. (REUTERS/Steve Marcus)

COMPUTE CRUNCH: The price tag for competing in the artificial intelligence race is rapidly climbing, fueling demand for advanced computing power and the high-end chips that are needed to support it. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) CEO Lisa Su said demand for AI computing is accelerating as industries rush to expand their capabilities.

AI GONE WRONG: A California teenager used a chatbot over several months for drug-use guidance on ChatGPT, his mother said. Sam Nelson, 18, was preparing for college when he asked an AI chatbot how many grams of kratom, a plant-based painkiller commonly sold at smoke shops and gas stations across the country, he would need to get a strong high, his mother, Leila Turner-Scott, told SFGate, according to the New York Post.

DR CHAT: ‘The Big Money Show’ panelists weigh in on a report on people turning to ChatGPT for medical and healthcare questions.

‘FUNDAMENTALLY DEFLATIONARY’: OpenAI Board Chair Bret Taylor discusses artificial intelligence’s potential to change traditional work and its increasing use in healthcare on ‘Varney & Co.’

MIND TRAP ALERT: Artificial intelligence chatbots are quickly becoming part of our daily lives. Many of us turn to them for ideas, advice or conversation. For most, that interaction feels harmless. However, mental health experts now warn that for a small group of vulnerable people, long and emotionally charged conversations with AI may worsen delusions or psychotic symptoms.

A California teenager sought drug-use guidance from a ChatGPT chatbot over several months while preparing for college, his mother told SFGate, according to the New York Post. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

FOLLOW FOX NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
X
LinkedIn

SIGN UP FOR OUR OTHER NEWSLETTERS

Fox News First
Fox News Opinion
Fox News Lifestyle
Fox News Health

DOWNLOAD OUR APPS

Fox News
Fox Business
Fox Weather
Fox Sports
Tubi

WATCH FOX NEWS ONLINE

Fox News Go

STREAM FOX NATION

Fox Nation

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.

This article was written by Fox News staff.

Technology

Meta expands nuclear power ambitions to include Bill Gates’ startup

Published

18 hours ago

January 9, 2026

Press Room

Meta expands nuclear power ambitions to include Bill Gates’ startup

These AI projects include Prometheus, the first of several supercluster computing systems, which is expected to come online in New Albany, Ohio, sometime this year. Meta is funding the construction of new nuclear reactors as part of the agreements, the first of which may come online “as early as 2030.” These announcements are part of Meta’s ongoing goal to support its future AI operations with nuclear energy, having previously signed a deal with Constellation to revive an aging nuclear power plant last year.

Financial information for the agreements hasn’t been released, but Meta says that it will “pay the full costs for energy used by our data centers so consumers don’t bear these expenses.”

“Our agreements with Vistra, TerraPower, Oklo, and Constellation make Meta one of the most significant corporate purchasers of nuclear energy in American history,” Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, said in the announcement. “State-of-the-art data centers and AI infrastructure are essential to securing America’s position as a global leader in AI.”