Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind - which was bought by Google - is to lead Microsoft AI
Microsoft has announced British Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman will lead its newly-formed division, Microsoft AI.Mr Suleyman currently heads start-up Inflection AI, but is best known for co-founding AI firm DeepMind.
It was one of the UK's best known AI firms and was bought by Google in 2014.Mr Suleyman's move cements Microsoft's reputation as a leader in artificial intelligence, a field in which Google is appearing to struggle.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Suleyman said he was "Excited" to take up his new position, adding that he would be taking several colleagues to Microsoft with him, including "Friend and long time collaborator" Karén Simonyan as chief scientist.
After leaving Google in 2022, Mr Suleyman co-founded Inflection AI, which has emerged as one of the most high-flying names in the generative AI race after raising $1.3bn from Microsoft and Nvidia last June.
Taking up his latest position at Microsoft cements his respect in the field.
Microsoft has invested billions into its partnership with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and recently in the French tech start-up Mistral AI.Microsoft said it would continue to build AI infrastructure and work in support of OpenAI's "Foundation model roadmap".
Mustafa Suleyman's appointment nudges our imaginary swingometer firmly in the direction of the Seattle-based tech giant.
The message could not be more clear: Microsoft"s long-term strategy of investing hugely in AI is paying off.
Mr Suleyman left Google to launch his own company two years ago but until now he's remained a a high profile supporter of Team Google - or so it seemed.
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