Ilya Sutskever: The AGI Prophet's Unsettling Past — And the Designer Baby Dream

Ilya Sutskever. The name itself, for many in the tech world, conjures images of profound, almost dizzying intellect; a mind so attuned to the future of artificial intelligence that he co-founded OpenAI and, more recently, broke away to chase the elusive dream of Safe Superintelligence. But here’s the thing, isn't it always? Even the most forward-looking visionaries carry a history, a tapestry of ideas, some perhaps less… mainstream than others. And honestly, it’s those lesser-known threads that often tell the most intriguing story, especially when they touch upon something as deeply human — and ethically fraught — as the very fabric of our being.

You see, long before the dramatic split from OpenAI and the singular focus on AGI safety that now defines his public persona, Sutskever was candid. Very candid, in truth. He openly mused, sometimes quite casually it seemed, about the prospect of genetically editing babies. Not just for eradicating disease, mind you — a noble pursuit in itself — but for something far more… ambitious. For the creation, you could say, of “superior children.” Yes, “superior,” a word that certainly makes one pause, doesn't it?

His vision, as shared in various public forums and interviews, hinted at a future where, perhaps, we wouldn't just be curing genetic predispositions, but actively engineering cognitive enhancements. A kind of pre-emptive upgrade for the next generation. And truly, the implications are staggering. We’re talking about a leap from therapy to enhancement, from fixing what's broken to designing what's 'better.' It’s a concept that immediately, and rightly so, ignites a firestorm of ethical debate, echoing the historical specter of eugenics – a dark chapter humanity, for good reason, tries very hard not to repeat.

And here lies the intriguing paradox. This same mind, so committed now to building a superintelligence that is profoundly safe for humanity, once entertained ideas that, to many, seem to walk a perilous ethical tightrope concerning humanity itself. How does one reconcile these two visions? Is it a shift in perspective, a natural evolution of thought, or simply different facets of a singularly audacious intellect? One can’t help but wonder.

Perhaps it speaks to a deeper, underlying drive, a relentless push towards optimization and progress that transcends conventional boundaries. For someone like Sutskever, whose life's work is predicated on imagining and building the intelligence of tomorrow, it seems a logical, if unsettling, extension to consider how humanity itself might 'evolve' with technological intervention. But at what cost, and with what foresight?

Ultimately, Sutskever's past musings serve as a potent reminder: the architects of our AI future are not solely focused on algorithms and code. They are grappling, sometimes publicly, sometimes behind closed doors, with the very definition of humanity and its potential trajectory. And while his current mission with Safe Superintelligence Inc. is undeniably critical, these older, more provocative ideas linger, don’t they? They remind us that the ethical conversations surrounding technological advancement are far from over; in truth, they've only just begun, touching every aspect of what it means to be human in an ever-accelerating world.