preface
In late 2023, a question ricocheted online: “What did Ilya see?” The backdrop was a dramatic power struggle at OpenAI, where Ilya Sutskever had reportedly been alarmed enough to support ousting the CEO. Elon Musk’s public musings on the matter fueled speculation. Amid the commotion, one intriguing clue to Sutskever’s mindset resurfaced: a personal reading list of research papers he had shared with John Carmack, informally known as “Sutskever’s List.” Sutskever allegedly claimed it captured “90% of what matters today” in AI. The notion that a single collection of papers could hold the keys to modern AI lent the list an aura of mystery and importance.
I first learned of Sutskever’s List through these whispers and online treasure hunts. Enthusiasts pieced together clues, and eventually a reconstructed version of the list appeared, quickly gaining almost a million views. It became a cultural touchstone. To ask, “Have you read Sutskever’s List?” was shorthand for claiming a handle on the fundamentals of contemporary AI. And yet, this question was often more signaling, as many knew of the list without truly engaging with the papers on it. In a field racing forward with speed, the idea of a stable canon of ideas felt refreshing and necessary. I realized that exploring these works and the context in which they arose could provide invaluable insight into how AI evolved into what we see today.
This book grew out of that realization.