Clearly Microsoft is going all out to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence (AI) race. Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft has hired Mustafa Suleyman who founded Google DeepMind and co-founded Inflection AI with Karen Simonyan.
Both Suleyman and Simonyan along with some of their colleagues will now spearhead the consumer AI projects at Microsoft as part of a new team.
Sam Altman had briefly been considered to head this new AI team, following his quitting his position as CEO of OpenAI. On 17 November, 2023, OpenAI’s board had dismissed Altman due to disagreements over the pace of developing and monetising artificial intelligence. Following his unexpected ouster, almost all the employees of OpenAI had threatened to quit if he wasn’t brought back and if the current board members failed to resign. Immediately after him quitting, Nadella had roped him for his inhouse AI team. However, following the threat given by the employees of OpenAI, Altman was reinstated. On hi spart, Altman agreed to return to OpenAI as the CEO, accompanied by a new board consisting of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo.
Nadella, on the other hand, saw Altman’s return to OpenAI as a crucial step towards establishing a more stable and effective governance structure at OpenAI. In 2023, Microsoft had announced the third phase of its long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multibillion dollar investment aimed at pushing AI research and innovations.
