Reached the limit of tolerance, Ilya is involved in an internal power struggle like Ultraman! Microsoft CTO reveals inside story: Is it all because of jealousy over a subordinate's excellence?
Editor: Yuanyu KingHZ
[New Intelligence Yuan Introduction] The most outrageous infighting in Silicon Valley: Ilya ignited the powder keg at OpenAI out of jealousy of Jakub's "shocking breakthrough". Altman was ousted by the board of directors, triggering a wave of high - level resignations. Insufficient computing power and budget constraints are the root causes. After the 2026 documents were exposed, Ilya's "image collapsed".
In 2023, OpenAI staged a Silicon Valley version of "Game of Thrones": Altman was ousted from OpenAI by then Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati and Chief Scientist Ilya without any prior knowledge.
Sam Altman was ousted from OpenAI
But do you still think this dramatic drama is a noble confrontation of AI safety concepts?
No, this time, the emails made the truth glaringly obvious: insufficient computing power, a shortage of manpower, and the popularity of products squeezing the research budget...
Coupled with Jakub Pachocki's "amazing progress" in breaking through a problem that had stumped his mentor Ilya for years. Even geniuses can be hurt, and organizations can lose control.
Thus, the most outrageous "infighting" in the tech circle was ignited by jealousy.
Master - disciple conflict, Altman is expelled
An email from Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott completely revealed the truth behind Ilya's departure from OpenAI ──
Ilya was willing to detonate a crisis at OpenAI due to a deep, inexpressible "intellectual jealousy" towards Jakub Pachocki.
Ilya Sutskever (left) and Jakub Pachocki (right)
The latest legal documents disclosed in Musk's lawsuit against Altman in 2026 rarely revealed the personnel undercurrents behind the OpenAI crisis.
In November 2023, when Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott reported to CEO Nadella, he analyzed the situation as follows:
It was actually Jakub Pachocki, not Ilya, who truly drove the research breakthrough. His contributions were so significant that Altman promoted him out of turn to lead the development direction of the core model.
Since taking on this important responsibility, Jakub's research progress has significantly accelerated - especially in the recent few weeks, he has made a truly shocking breakthrough.
Ilya must have been extremely tormented by this: his former subordinate not only rose to a leadership position, but more importantly, this person had solved a core problem that had plagued him for years without a solution.
For a proud genius like Ilya, it's not hard to imagine the impact on his psychological defense. At this moment, even the smartest minds in Silicon Valley are not immune to human weaknesses.
So, on November 17, 2023, the OpenAI board of directors dropped a bombshell that shocked the tech world:
It was announced that co - founder and CEO Altman was removed from his position and kicked out of the board of directors.
The company stated sternly in its official statement:
Altman failed to maintain his usual honesty in communication with the board of directors, which hindered the board's ability to perform its duties. The board no longer has confidence in his continued leadership of OpenAI.
According to media reports such as The Wall Street Journal, then - OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever played a key role in this dismissal.
He used his influence on the board of directors to make them accept his story, and thus Altman was fired.
Just a few hours after the decision to remove Altman was announced, OpenAI co - founder Greg Brockman angrily resigned from his position as chairman. Subsequently, research director Jakub Pachocki, core researcher Aleksander Mądry, Szymon Sidor and other technical backbones of the "Polish Legion" also resigned one after another to protest.
Ultimately, this "coup" did not last long and ended with Altman's official return to the CEO position.
At a subsequent all - staff meeting, Sutskever tried to defend the dismissal decision, insisting that it was not a "hostile takeover" but to protect the company's mission.
However, after this "dismissal storm", the rift between Ilya and Altman was irreparable.
In an email to Nadella, Kevin Scott attributed Ilya's dissatisfaction with Altman to two problems, both of which had been brewing within OpenAI for a long time.
The first problem is the competition for computing resources (GPUs) between the research department and the application department; the second problem is the promotion of Jakub's position.
Kevin Scott's email to Nadella
Kevin Scott's email to Nadella
Kevin Scott's email to Nadella
Kevin Scott's email to Nadella
Kevin Scott's email to Nadella
Computing power "resource civil war"
With the popularity of ChatGPT, the "resource civil war" between OpenAI's application department and research department for GPUs became inevitable.
The success of the application department (ChatGPT team) directly led to a tilt of resources within the company.
The precious GPUs originally belonging to the research department for exploring the future were largely transferred to serve C - end users eager to chat, while the computing power requirements of the research department for training new models could never be met.
Ilya's need for a large amount of computing power to verify his concept of "super - intelligence" was restricted.
Ultimately, Altman promoted Jakub to lead the core model development work at OpenAI.
Kevin Scott commented in the email: "From the CEO's perspective, Altman's decision to promote Jakub was completely correct."
OpenAI started commercialization attempts in 2019 and gradually launched commercial products. The allocation of computing power resources must also serve this strategic direction. If talent cannot be translated into products, it will be mercilessly discarded.
Compared with his mentor Ilya, who is engaged in pure research, the practical - oriented disciple Jakub seems to be more adaptable to this new game rule.
After leading the action to remove Altman from the OpenAI CEO position in 2023, in March 2024, Ilya announced his departure from OpenAI. He also posted a group photo with Jakub and others on the X platform.
Is OpenAI better off without Ilya?
Jakub left a message under Ilya's tweet
Jakub left a message under Ilya's tweet, calling him his mentor and an excellent partner, and saying that he would miss working with Ilya.
Ilya's dejected departure is not only a position struggle but also the collapse of Ilya's "prophet image".
Some netizens directly called Ilya "arrogant" and dug out previous media reports about Ilya's "mystifying" behavior.
According to The Atlantic, employees shouted "Feel AGI! Feel AGI!", and this slogan was led by Ilya himself.
According to The Atlantic, employees shouted "Feel AGI! Feel AGI!", and this slogan was led by Ilya himself.
He even commissioned a wooden statue to represent "unaligned" AI that goes against human interests and then set it on fire.
In short, some board members don't seem to be focusing on promoting AI technological progress in a scientifically rigorous way but are engaging in some strange metaphysical ideas.
Sam Altman
However, did OpenAI get better after forcing Ilya out?
Social media comments
Social media comments
Netizens criticized Altman for "not being in line with human interests and only pursuing maximum profit" and for inserting advertisements in AI output. Some even said that Altman's brief dismissal in 2023 should have been the "best outcome".
Some netizens implied that OpenAI has been "stagnant" in model development. Since encountering obstacles in large - model pre - training after June 2024, OpenAI has made no major breakthroughs for more than a year.
Social media comments
Some netizens also pointed out that OpenAI has not launched a new cutting - edge model for more than a year, and ChatGPT users are turning to Gemini. In the long run, OpenAI has lost its competitiveness.
As Jakub officially took over as OpenAI's chief scientist in 2024 and Ilya left dejectedly, the "Polish Legion" has completely stepped into the spotlight.
When the smoke of internal strife dissipates, the market will never pay for power - struggle stories but will only vote for disruptive products.
Facing the strong performance of competitors such as Google and Anthropic, can the "Polish Legion" regain OpenAI's former leading position after the "red alert" is sounded? They must quickly come up with something as shocking as GPT - 5 to dispel doubts.
Reference materials:
https://x.com/trajektoriePL/status/2018242446577086589
https://officechai.com/ai/ilya-sutskever-was-unhappy-that-jakub-pachocki-was-making-more-research-breakthroughs-and