It seems like Google aims to grab a bit of the market share from NVIDIA and AMD by offering startups large compute deals and allowing them to train their massive AI models on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). One such case is the OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) startup. According to a GCP post, SSI is "partnering with Google Cloud to use TPUs to accelerate its research and development efforts toward building a safe, superintelligent AI." Google's latest TPU v7p, codenamed Ironwood, was released yesterday. Carrying 4,614 TeraFLOPS of FP8 precision and 192 GB of HBM memory, these TPUs are interconnected using Google's custom ICI infrastructure and are scaled to configurations in pods of 9,216 chips, where Ironwood delivers 42.5 ExaFLOPS of total computing power.

For AI training, this massive power will allow AI models to quickly go over training, accelerating research iterations and ultimately accelerating model development. For SSI, the end goal is a simple mission: achieving ASI with safety at the front. "We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs. We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead," notes the SSI website, adding that "Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures."

OpenAI's co-founder and ex-chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, has announced the formation of a new company promising a safe path to artificial superintelligence (ASI). Called Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), the company has a simple mission: achieving ASI with safety at the front. "We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs. We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead," notes the SSI website, adding that "Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures."

Interestingly, safety is a concern only a few frontier AI labs have. In recent history, OpenAI's safety team got the spotlight for being neglected, and the company's safety lead, Jan Leike, publically criticized safety practices before moving to Anthropic. Anthropic is focused on providing safe AI models, with its Claude Opus being one of the leading AI models to date. What is to come out of SSI? We still don't know. However, given the team of Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross, and Daniel Levy, we assume they attracted the best-in-class talent for developing next-generation AI models, focusing on safety. With offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, SSI can tap a vast network of AI researchers and policymakers to establish safe ASI, free from short-term commercial pressure and focused on research and development. "Our team, investors, and business model are all aligned to achieve SSI," says the SSI website.