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Ilya Sutskever Takes Charge of Safe Superintelligence After CEO Daniel Gross Joins Meta Amid AI Talent War

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Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist of OpenAI, has stepped up to lead Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup he founded last year, following the departure of CEO Daniel Gross who was poached by Meta Platforms to head its AI products division.

Key Developments

  • Daniel Gross left SSI to join Meta amid an intensifying AI talent war, where major tech companies compete fiercely with lucrative pay and strategic acquisitions.

  • Meta has also tried to recruit Sutskever and acquire SSI, which was valued recently at $32 billion, but Sutskever emphasized the startup’s focus on its mission, despite the interest.

  • SSI raised $1 billion last year aiming to build advanced AI systems that safely surpass human intelligence.

Background on Sutskever and Meta’s AI Push

  • Sutskever previously played a pivotal role at OpenAI but departed following internal leadership turmoil involving Sam Altman in late 2023.

  • Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently created Meta Superintelligence Labs, consolidating the company’s AI efforts after challenges with its Llama 4 model and losing key talent.

  • This new unit will be led by Alexandr Wang (ex-Scale AI CEO) and Nat Friedman (ex-GitHub chief), with Meta investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI to bolster its AI capabilities.

Industry Connections and Meta’s Strategy

  • Gross and Friedman co-founded venture capital firm NFDG, which backs startups including SSI, Perplexity, and Figma.

  • Meta reportedly offered to buy a minority stake in NFDG’s funds, signaling a strategic push to influence key players in the AI startup ecosystem.

  • Gross’s background includes a 2013 startup acquisition by Apple and leadership roles in machine learning and AI at the tech giant.

Meta’s Zuckerberg Forms New AGI-Focused AI Team Amid Scale AI Investment

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Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is assembling a new artificial intelligence team with a mission to pursue artificial general intelligence (AGI) — AI systems capable of matching or exceeding human-level intelligence — according to a report by Bloomberg News on Tuesday. The move signals Meta’s ambition to compete at the highest level of AI development, alongside rivals like OpenAI.

Zuckerberg is reportedly leading the recruitment of about 50 AI experts to form the AGI group, including searching for a new head of AI research. The effort comes amid Meta’s planned investment of over $10 billion in Scale AI, with Scale AI’s founder Alexandr Wang expected to join Meta’s AGI team once the deal is finalized, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

Meta has not yet publicly confirmed the formation of this team. Reuters noted that Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The creation of the AGI team follows internal dissatisfaction with the performance and reception of Meta’s most recent large language model, Llama 4, according to Bloomberg. Compounding these challenges, the Wall Street Journal previously reported that Meta delayed the release of its flagship “Behemoth” AI model last month due to concerns about its readiness and capabilities.

While Meta continues to build out its Llama series of models and expand AI integration across its platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the pivot toward AGI suggests Zuckerberg is positioning Meta to remain competitive as global tech giants race to develop the next generation of AI technology.

Competitors such as OpenAI are also actively seeking additional investment to fuel their AGI research. The AGI race has attracted massive financial commitments, talent acquisitions, and escalating debates about both the promise and risks of creating human-level AI.

WPP Media Lowers 2025 Global Ad Revenue Growth Forecast to 6% Amid US Trade Uncertainty

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WPP Media on Monday revised down its forecast for global advertising revenue growth in 2025 to 6%, from an earlier estimate of 7.7%, citing increased uncertainty over U.S. trade policies. Advertisers appear to be delaying new marketing commitments amid shifting trade dynamics, the report by WPP’s media investment division revealed.

Digital advertising remains a key revenue driver for major tech firms including Google (Alphabet), Meta Platforms, Pinterest, Reddit, and Snap. The report highlighted how economic uncertainty is accelerating the adoption of AI tools for ad creation and targeting. Meta, for instance, plans to enable brands to fully create and target ads using AI tools by the end of 2026.

Research from Emarketer also suggests companies reliant on traditional keyword-based search ads may face revenue declines due to the rise of AI-driven search advertising.

WPP Media projects global advertising revenue will reach $1.08 trillion in 2025, with growth moderating to 6.1% in 2026. Digital advertising is expected to represent 73.2% of total ad revenue this year. Notably, user-generated content is forecasted to generate more ad revenue than professionally produced content in 2025.

The report anticipates print advertising revenue will decline by 3.1% to $45.5 billion in 2025, while search ad revenue is forecast to grow by 7.3%.

WPP Media also noted shifting brand strategies, including prioritizing flexible ad contracts, reallocating budgets toward direct-to-consumer media placements, and emphasizing secure data handling amidst economic uncertainty.

The U.S. remains the largest advertising market, with an expected growth of 5.6% to $404.7 billion, followed by China and the UK.