Microsoft names Google DeepMind co-founder to lead its new consumer AI unit

Microsoft has named DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman as head of its newly formed consumer artificial intelligence unit and hired several employees from its Inflection AI startup as it tries to defend its lead against growing competition from Google.

Suleiman will serve as CEO of Microsoft’s artificial intelligence division, bringing its consumer AI efforts such as the Copilot chatbot and the new Bing browser that uses the technology under one roof, the company said on Tuesday.

Built using technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Copilot is key to Microsoft’s efforts to monetize its artificial intelligence efforts, which can write emails, summarize documents and give presentations.

“This infusion of new talent will allow us to accelerate again,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a blog post.

“As part of this transition, Mikhail Parakhin and his entire team, including Copilot, Bing and Edge; and Misha Bilenko and the GenAI team will report to Mustafa,” he said.

Microsoft has been collaborating with other startups, including France’s Mistral AI, amid strict regulatory oversight of its collaboration with OpenAI.

Nadella said on Tuesday that Microsoft is “very committed” to its OpenAI partnership.

Karen Simonyan, who co-founded Inflection AI with Suleyman and Microsoft board member Reid Hoffman, will serve as chief scientist.

Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google unit is expanding its artificial intelligence-related efforts. Bloomberg News reported on Monday that Apple is in talks to build Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence engine into the iPhone.

Inflection AI has raised $1.3 billion (approximately Rs. 10,802 crore) in the form of cash and cloud credit from Microsoft and Nvidia, valuing it at $4 billion (approximately Rs. 10,802 crore) and has become the most promising player in the genAI race. One of the names. 33,240 crore) in June last year.

The startup behind the chatbot Pi said on Tuesday that former Mozilla R&D chief Sean White would serve as its new chief executive and plans to shift its focus to providing models for business customers rather than focusing on consumers.

It also added that its Inflection-2.5 will be available on Microsoft Azure.

© Thomson Reuters 2024