Microsoft appoints DeepMind co-founder to head AI unit

Of all the tech giants, Microsoft has been the quickest to embrace generative AI, capable of generating text, images and video, and integrating its powers into a whole range of products, especially thanks to its Copilot chatbot.

“I am thrilled to announce that today I have joined Microsoft as CEO of Microsoft AI. I will lead all consumer AI products and research, including Copilot, Bing, and Edge,” Soliman announced in a post on the X social network.

The researcher said he is leaving his position as CEO of Inflection, a startup he also co-founded that has become a promising competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic in building models that deliver ChatGPT-style AI.

He added that some of his key collaborators at Inflection, including co-founder Karen Simonyan, have “decided to join” his team at Microsoft.

“We have been working with speed and intensity and this injection of new talent will allow us to accelerate our pace again,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a blog post.

Nadella said Microsoft's AI innovation will continue to rely on its partnership with OpenAI, the Sam Altman-led company in which the giant invested $13 billion last year.

“We congratulate Mustafa and Karen on their new roles and look forward to working with them,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to US media.

With this hire, Microsoft expands its already prominent position in the overheated AI market, assembling investments and partnerships well beyond its agreement with OpenAI.

The full adoption of artificial intelligence has often come as a surprise to rival Google, and has led Microsoft to become the world's largest company by market capitalization, wresting the top spot from Apple.

Google acquired DeepMind, which Suleiman co-founded, in 2014 for $500 million, and last year fully integrated it with the tech company's artificial intelligence research division.