Sam Blackshear, co-founder and chief technology officer of Sui developer Mysten Labs, said he is leaving the company and joining artificial intelligence startup Anthropic to work on defensive security research.
In a post on X, Blackshear said the move will take him into Defensive Security Research at Anthropic. He wrote that the part of his career he has enjoyed most has always been direct technical work and the chance to explore new technical fields, and said Anthropic gives him both.
Shift to AI security research
Blackshear said the rapid development of AI is sharply changing the balance of power between attackers and defenders. He said that is why he wants to move into security research at this point and help build safer AI systems.
Even after leaving Mysten Labs, he said he will remain a close adviser to Mysten Labs and developers across the Sui ecosystem. He added that he is still willing to support teams in the ecosystem if they need help.
He will stay involved with Mysten, Sui and Move
Blackshear described Mysten Labs as the strongest technical team of his career and one of the most capable groups of peers he has worked with. He said the experience was the adventure he had hoped for, and more than that.
He also reiterated that he remains deeply committed to the Move programming language. Blackshear said Move has been a language he has spent more than eight years building and developing, and that the planned Move Foundation will remain an important focus for him. He said he wants to keep contributing to the growth of the Move ecosystem in different ways.
Move remains a long-term focus
Move was originally created in Meta’s, formerly Facebook’s, Diem blockchain project. It later became the core smart contract language for public blockchains including Aptos and Sui, and is known for its resource model and stronger security properties.
Evan Web3 to lead Mysten’s technical direction
Blackshear also said Mysten Labs’ future technical vision will be planned by Evan Web3. He said Evan personally recruited many of Mysten Labs’ best engineers and, before joining Mysten, led technical teams at Apple and Meta. Blackshear said he is looking forward to seeing Evan lead the company’s technical direction.