OpenAI Co-Founder Ilya Sutskever Says It's Back To Research For Real AI Breakthroughs: 'Now The Scale Is So Big...'

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With AI models reaching unprecedented size, OpenAI and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Ilya Sutskever says the industry is moving away from pure scaling and returning to research-driven innovation.

AI Era Shifts: From Scaling To Research

During a conversation with YouTuber Dwarkesh Patel that was released on Tuesday, Sutskever reflected on the evolution of AI development.

"From 2012 to 2020, it was the age of research," he said, pointing to the period when breakthroughs came primarily from new algorithms and model designs.

"From 2020 to 2025, it was the age of scaling," he added, noting that the focus was simple: bigger models, more compute, better performance.

Ilya Sutskever Underscores Limits Of Scaling

Sutskever then said that the current scale of AI is so large that simply increasing size is no longer enough to transform models.

Now that computing is very big, the belief that 100 times more computing would radically change everything just isn't true, he said, adding that it would make a difference, but not the kind of leap people expect.

Back To Research, But With Supercomputers

He concluded that AI has returned to a research-focused era, but this time, researchers have access to vast computing power

 "It's back to the age of research again, just with big computers," Sutskever said.

See Also: Eddie Wu Doesn't See An AI Bubble For The Next 3 Years: Alibaba CEO Doesn't ‘See Much Of An Issue'

Sutskever's OpenAI Exit, SSI Launch

Sutskever was a central figure in OpenAI's 2023 leadership upheaval, which briefly led to CEO Sam Altman's ousting before his eventual return.

Earlier this year, reports indicated that Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) was unable to acquire SSI, a stealth-mode startup valued at $32 billion.

He co-founded SSI in June 2024, shortly after departing OpenAI and by September 2024, SSI had secured $1 billion in funding from top venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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