Preparing for a Future Where AI Does "All the Things"
Insights for IP from Ilya Sutskever's speech to graduates at University of Toronto
The world is changing at an unprecedented pace, and at the heart of this transformation is Artificial Intelligence. For intellectual property professionals, lawyers, and inventors, understanding the trajectory and implications of AI is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Imagine a future where AI systems can perform any task a human can learn, not just some of them, but all of them. This is the profound vision shared by Ilya Sutskever, a seminal figure in AI development, who recently received an honorary degree from the University of Toronto.
His message to graduates, and indeed to all of us, carries a powerful and urgent warning: "AI will keep getting better and the day will come when AI will do all of our all the things that we can do not just some of them but all of them." This isn't a distant fantasy; it's a future he posits as likely, and one that demands our immediate attention and proactive engagement. The challenge ahead, he suggests, is the "greatest challenge of humanity ever."
The Architect of Modern AI: Ilya Sutskever’s Journey
To grasp the weight of Sutskever's predictions, it's essential to understand his foundational role in shaping the current AI landscape. Ilya Sutskever's journey is deeply intertwined with the University of Toronto, where he spent a decade, earning his bachelor's, master's, and PhD degrees. He received his bachelor's degree in 2005 from the University of Toronto in the same hall where he recently received his fourth degree, an honorary Doctor of Science, honoris causa. He describes his time at U of T as "extremely wonderful," allowing him to "go deep" in his interests and "really become a researcher."
A pivotal influence during his graduate studies was Geoffrey Hinton, who would later win the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics and whom Sutskever considers "one of my life's great strokes of luck." Hinton himself was "hugely impressed" by Sutskever, noting that his "immediate reaction to things were reactions that had taken experts in the field quite a long time to come up with."
Even as a teenager, after emigrating to Canada from Israel, Sutskever was "utterly enchanted" by computers and envisioned building machines with "human-like capabilities." His early research at U of T included a program using neural networks to learn language and generate text, a "crude forerunner to ChatGPT."
His contributions quickly moved from theoretical to profoundly practical. In 2012, Sutskever, alongside Hinton and Alex Krizhevsky, developed AlexNet, a convolutional neural network that revolutionized image recognition by outperforming previous methods significantly. This breakthrough "effectively changed the AI game overnight". Following this, Sutskever joined Hinton’s spinoff company DNNResearch (later acquired by Google) and, as a research scientist at Google Brain, contributed to AlphaGo, a deep neural network-powered program that defeated a professional human player in the ancient game of Go. He also co-developed sequence-to-sequence models, which are now fundamental to modern machine translation systems.
In 2015, Sutskever co-founded OpenAI, where he served as research director and then chief scientist. Under his leadership, OpenAI introduced the large language models that power ChatGPT, which is now used by millions globally for tasks ranging from drafting emails to writing code. He also played a key role in developing large reasoning models capable of complex reasoning tasks.
Last year, Sutskever left OpenAI to co-found Safe SuperIntelligence, a company dedicated to developing safe AI systems with superhuman capabilities, aiming to "advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead." His work has earned him prestigious accolades, including election to the Royal Society and being named among TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI in both 2023 and 2024.
Ilya Sutskever's Vision of an Unprecedented AI
Sutskever’s unique vantage point as an architect of AI's rapid ascent informs his profound predictions for its future. He asserts that we live in "the most unusual time ever" because of AI. While acknowledging that "today's AI" has already changed what it means to be a student and is starting to impact work in "unknown and unpredictable ways," he emphasizes that this is just the beginning.
His central prediction is startling: "the day will come when AI will do all of our all the things that we can do not just some of them but all of them."
This isn't based on a hunch, but a fundamental premise: "all of us have a brain and the brain is a biological computer… so why can't the digital computer a digital brain do the same things?" This sentence underpins his conviction that digital AI will eventually match or surpass human capabilities in every domain that can be learned.
He acknowledges the current imperfections of AI, noting it "still needs to catch up on a lot of things." However, its current capabilities are "evocative" enough to prompt contemplation of a near future – perhaps in "three... five... 10 numbers are being thrown around" years – where AI will continuously improve.
This improvement isn't merely about doing more work or growing the economy; it implies a radical acceleration of progress, including in AI research itself, leading to "such extreme things... such unimaginable things," according to Sutskever.
The "Greatest Challenge of Humanity Ever"
For Sutskever, the true challenge posed by AI extends far beyond its impact on jobs and careers. He describes it as something "really unprecedented and really extreme."
If AI reaches a point where it can perform "all the things that we can do," it raises fundamental questions: "what's going to happen when computers can do all of our jobs?" These are "really big questions," "dramatic questions," and only part of the intense challenge.
The greater intensity, and the "greatest challenge of humanity ever," stems from the profound implications of superintelligent AI. As AI becomes "very smart super intelligent," there will be "very profound issues about making sure that they are …what they say and not pretend[ing] to be something else."
This touches upon questions of alignment, control, trustworthiness, and the very nature of truth and intent when dealing with entities far exceeding human intelligence. The implications for society, governance, and even our collective human purpose are immense. Overcoming this challenge, he adds, "will also bring the greatest reward."
The rise of artificial intelligence presents an unprecedented and extreme challenge for professionals in intellectual property and law, demanding their proactive engagement. As Ilya Sutskever emphasizes, AI is already transforming what it means to be a student and is starting to change the nature of work and careers in unknown and unpredictable ways. The true magnitude of this shift lies in the future potential of AI to perform "all the things that we can do," given that the human brain is a biological computer and a digital one can emulate its capabilities.
This inevitable progression raises "really big questions" and "dramatic questions" about how legal frameworks and intellectual property rights will adapt when AI systems can execute tasks traditionally reserved for human intellect. Furthermore, Sutskever highlights the impact to critical areas like authenticity, attribution, and liability.
It is imperative for those in law and IP to not ignore these advancements but to begin to "simply us[e] AI and look at what the best AI of today can do" to build the necessary intuition for this radical future.
Just as "politics will take interest in you," AI will fundamentally affect these professions, requiring individuals to generate "the energy that's required to overcome the huge challenge that AI will pose."
This active participation is essential for contributing to the responsible development of AI, ensuring that safety remains ahead as AI capabilities advance.
How to Tackle It: Embrace Reality and Engage with AI
Given this daunting future, Sutskever offers a key piece of advice for navigating the "unusual time" we live in. He suggests adopting a "useful state of mind": "to accept reality as it is and to try not to regret the past and try to improve the situation."
This mindset, though "hard to adopt" and a "constant struggle with one's emotion," is incredibly productive. Instead of dwelling on past decisions or perceived unfairness, he advocates for asking: "okay things are the way they are what's the next best step." He finds that when he applies this personally, "everything works out so much better."
Beyond this philosophical approach, his practical advice for confronting the AI future is direct and experiential: "by simply using AI and looking at what the best AI of today can do you get an intuition." This intuition will strengthen as AI improves, making the abstract concepts discussed today "much more real." He stresses that "no amount of essays and explanations can compete with what we see with our own senses with our own two eyes."
Sutskever believes that this direct engagement and refusal to ignore AI will "generate the energy that's required to overcome the huge challenge that AI will pose." He concludes that whether we like it or not, our lives "is going to be affected by AI to a great extent," making paying attention and generating energy to solve problems "the main thing."
Navigating the Future: Implications for Law, IP, and Innovation
For intellectual property professionals, lawyers, and inventors, Sutskever’s insights are not merely theoretical; they demand immediate consideration and strategic adaptation. While the sources do not directly address the legal or patent industries, we can infer critical implications from Sutskever's broader predictions about AI's impact on work, skills, and the future of human capability.
The Changing Nature of Work and Skills: Sutskever's warning that AI "will do all the things that we can do" directly challenges the perceived stability of many traditional legal and IP tasks.
AI's ability to "do all of our all the things that we can do" could extend to advanced legal research, case law analysis, statutory interpretation, and even prediction of legal outcomes. This suggests a future where junior lawyers' tasks may be automated, shifting the human role towards more complex strategic thinking, client relations, and novel problem-solving that requires nuanced human judgment.
If AI can "write some code" and perform "complex reasoning tasks", it's not a leap to envision AI systems drafting highly detailed patent applications, conducting comprehensive prior art searches with unprecedented speed and accuracy, and analyzing claims for validity and infringement. Practitioners have already seen that this begin to transform the patent attorney's role. Potentially it will reduce the need for drafting and searching, while increasing the demand for expertise in interpreting AI output and navigating the new legal frontiers of AI-assisted invention.
As AI capabilities advance, the very definition of "invention" and "authorship" will be profoundly tested. If AI can truly "do all of our all the things that we can do", who is the inventor when an AI autonomously generates a novel solution or creates a new design? This raises fundamental questions about inventorship criteria, intellectual property ownership, and the legal framework for protecting AI-generated works. The "profound issues about making sure that they are … what they say and not pretend to be something else" also extend to verifying the true source and intent behind AI-generated intellectual property.
The Imperative to "Accept Reality and Engage"
Sutskever's core advice to "accept reality as it is" and "simply using AI and looking at what the best AI of today can do you get an intuition" is paramount for the legal community. Ignoring the rapid advancements in AI is no longer an option. Lawyers, IP professionals, and inventors must actively experiment with and understand current AI tools. This direct engagement will not only build intuition about AI's capabilities and limitations but also "generate the energy" needed to proactively shape legal frameworks, ethical guidelines, and business models for an AI-driven future. This includes collaborating with AI developers to ensure responsible development and addressing the profound societal and legal issues that will inevitably arise.
The era we are entering, as illuminated by Ilya Sutskever, is one of unparalleled change and challenge. His insights offer a stark yet pragmatic roadmap: acknowledge the unprecedented nature of AI's trajectory, understand its potential to transform every aspect of human endeavor, and actively engage with its evolving capabilities.
For those in law, IP, and innovation, this means not merely observing, but becoming active participants in shaping the legal and ethical landscape of a future where AI does "all the things that we can do." According to Sutskever, the greatest challenge awaits, but so too does the greatest reward.
Disclaimer: This is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. To the extent there are any opinions in this article, they are the author’s alone and do not represent the beliefs of his firm or clients. The strategies expressed are purely speculation based on publicly available information. The information expressed is subject to change at any time and should be checked for completeness, accuracy and current applicability. For advice, consult a suitably licensed attorney and/or patent professional.