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Ilya Sutskever, a Co-Founder of OpenAI, Raises $1 Billion for his New AI Company

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Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI who departed the artificial intelligence startup in May, has raised $1 billion for his new venture, Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, from investors.

In a post on X, the company disclosed that investors included SV Angel, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and NFDG, an investment partnership co-managed by SSI executive Daniel Gross.

In May, Sutskever announced the new endeavor on X, writing, “We will pursue safe superintelligence in a straight shot, with one focus, one goal, and one product.”

Chief scientist Sutskever co-led the Superalignment team at OpenAI with Jan Leike, who departed in May to work for competitor artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Only a year after announcing the group, OpenAI dissolved the team shortly after their departures.

At the time, Leike stated that OpenAI’s “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products” in a post on X.

Along with Daniel Levy, a former employee of OpenAI, and Daniel Gross, who handled Apple’s AI and search initiatives, Sutskever founded SSI. The business maintains offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Palo Alto, California.

The corporation wrote on X, “SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap, because it is our sole focus.” “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.”

Sam Altman, the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, was temporarily removed in November, with Sutskever being one of the board members engaged.

In November, Altman was not “consistently candid in his communications with the board,” according to a statement released by OpenAI’s board. Things looked more complicated very quickly. As reported by the Wall Street Journal and other media, Altman and Sutskever were more keen to advance the delivery of new technology, while Sutskever focused on making sure that artificial intelligence would not damage people.

An open letter indicating their intention to quit in response to the board’s decision was signed by nearly every employee of OpenAI. After a few days, Altman returned to the organization.

Sutskever apologized to the public for his part in the ordeal after Altman’s abrupt dismissal and before his prompt reinstatement.

On November 20, Sutskever posted on X, saying, “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” “I never intended to harm OpenAI. I love everything we’ve built together and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI, raises $1 billion for his new AI company

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ProRata, an AI startup, Teams up with UK Publishers after reportedly Hitting $130 Million in Valuation

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A number of well-known British media outlets have joined ProRata, an AI firm that claims to compensate publishers for the usage of their work, in its expanding network of partnerships.

The Los Angeles-based firm announced on Wednesday that it has signed licensing deals with publishers such as Sky News, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail’s publisher, DMG Media.

In a recent Series A funding round, ProRata raised $25 million from investors such as the Mayfield Fund, Prime Movers Lab, and Revolution Ventures.

“ProRata’s founder and CEO Bill Gross said his firm’s AI technology is the only one that pledges to credit and compensate creators, while providing users with accurate search results.

“We have had hundreds of content owners and media companies reach out to us from around the world who are interested in piloting our technology. Stealing and scraping content is not a sustainable path forward,” he continued.

Similar alliances have previously been formed by ProRata with the German publisher Axel Springer, the Atlantic, Fortune, Time, and Universal Music Group (UMG).

Media firms are offered reasonable compensation by ProRata for the use of their content. The startup’s in-house technology may determine the proper amount of pay by evaluating the worth of the information used to create responses from an AI platform. This would make it possible to pay copyright holders for their work on a per-use basis.

Gross had previously said that AI platforms have been using “shoplifted, plagiarized content,” which fosters an atmosphere in which “disinformation thrives and creators get nothing.”

Gross is recognized for having created the pay-per-click model of internet search monetization with his business, GoTo.com, which was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2003.

In a recent blog post, Tige Savage, a cofounder of Revolution, stated that Bill Gross is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in monetization techniques.

“He’s attracted a world-class tech team led by AI luminary Tarek Najm to implement the vision and an accomplished business team, including Annelies Jansen and Jonas Lee to drive content and AI partnerships,” Savage continued.

The unpaid use of copyrighted materials by OpenAI and other tech companies to train their AI systems has led to litigation from media companies and other content creators.

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Film Bazaar Unveils an Interactive Cinema App from an Indian Tech Startup

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Arjun Nittoor, the founder of the Indian technology firm Vireza, disclosed at Film Bazaar that the company is creating a new mobile application that would transform the experience of watching movies in theaters by enabling viewers to engage with the films in real time.

The technology, which was created wholly in-house at the company’s research and development department in Bengaluru, allows viewers to use their smartphones to vote on important plot points during the movie. To keep up with the current screening, patrons download an app before entering the theater and scan a QR code at their seat.

“The film industry is one of the few sectors where the audience experience has seen minimal technological disruption in theatres,” Nittoor stated. “While screen and sound quality have advanced and 3D has been partially adopted, the viewing experience has largely remained the same for decades.”

The screen automatically brightens to show voting options and dims again when choices are made. The system uses discreet phone notifications to encourage audience participation around every ten minutes.

In 2026, Vireza intends to introduce the technology with a full-length interactive movie that will be produced in both English and South Indian for international distribution. The business is presently in the development stage and will shortly start doing multiplex chain trial screenings.

CtrlMovie’s prior success in the interactive film industry was mentioned by Nittoor. CtrlMovie is well-known for “Traces of Responsibility” and “Late Shift.”

In order to overcome the difficulties in cinematography, editing, shot composition, and writing that plagued previous attempts at the format, the firm has spent five years creating what Nittoor refers to as “a new science of filmmaking” that is especially tailored for interactive cinema.

“Despite the proliferation of viewing devices, big-ticket films continue to draw massive crowds to theatres, with box office numbers higher than ever,”  Nittoor stated. “This demand underscores the potential for a meaningful technology shift that could draw audiences out of their homes and into cinemas.”

Other Asian businesses are likewise investigating audience-driven narrative in motion pictures. In February of the following year, Japan’s King Records intends to release “Hypnosis Mic – Division Rap Battle,” an animated interactive film.

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Perplexity, an AI business, adds retail capabilities as search competition gets more intense

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Perplexity, an artificial intelligence search firm, opened a shopping hub on Monday to draw people to its platform in an effort to challenge Alphabet-owned Google’s hegemony in the search engine market.

Supported by Amazon (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos and top AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O), the company launches a new tab and will provide users with product cards that display pertinent goods in answer to shopping-related queries.

According to the company, each card offers product facts in an eye-catching manner.

Shopify (SHOP.TO), one of the platform integrations that powers the new functionality, provides access to up-to-date and pertinent information on products from companies on the Canadian e-commerce platform worldwide that ship to the United States.

The goal of e-commerce platforms has been to attract more merchants by utilizing more AI-powered solutions.

‘Snap to Shop’ is a visual search engine featured in Perplexity’s online shopping rollout that displays products based on users’ pictures of an item.

The features will initially be introduced in the US before moving on to other regions; however, no timeframe has been given.

Additionally, Perplexity is launching a “Merchant Program” to enable shops to communicate with the company about its products.

Earlier in November, Reuters reported that the business was raising $3 billion in new funding.

Since the generative AI pioneer added a number of new search features to ChatGPT, OpenAI has become a direct rival of Perplexity, which has been seeking to broaden its product line.

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