Microsoft Hires Inflection Founders to Run New Consumer AI Division – Microsoft has brought on board Mustafa Suleyman and Karen Simonyan, founders of prominent AI startup Inflection AI, along with several team members, as part of its ambitious recruitment drive under the leadership of Satya Nadella.
Suleyman, who co-founded DeepMind acquired by Google in 2014, will head Microsoft’s newly established consumer AI unit, named Microsoft AI, while Simonyan assumes the role of chief scientist within the same division. Suleyman, holding the position of EVP and CEO of Microsoft AI, will directly report to CEO Nadella.
Notably, Microsoft previously invested in Inflection AI, leading a substantial funding round of $1.3 billion less than a year ago. In addition to his responsibilities at Microsoft AI, Suleyman will oversee AI products and research for Copilot, Bing, and Edge, as announced in a tweet. “Several members of the Inflection team have chosen to join Mustafa and Karén at Microsoft,” Nadella wrote in a blog post.
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“They include some of the most accomplished AI engineers, researchers, and builders in the world. They have designed, led, launched, and co-authored many of the most important contributions in advancing AI over the last five years.” Inflection AI stands out as a leading AI startup, founded in 2022 by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, alongside Suleyman.
Initially, the company aimed to create AI systems capable of engaging in open-ended dialogue, providing answers, and aiding in various tasks. However, according to a blog post, Inflection AI has announced a strategic shift towards the AI studio business. This move involves the development and testing of customer generative AI models.
“This renewed emphasis on our API also comes with some important changes in the company,” wrote Inflection AI. As part of the transition/situation, Inflection AI said it will host Inflection-2.5 on Microsoft Azure, something it said will help to reach “creators everywhere.” It added: “We’ll also be ensuring it comes to other cloud hosting platforms in the near future. The API itself isn’t available today, but will be up and running very soon.”
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It seems that Microsoft has been actively developing the new AI unit for a while now. Nadella had extended offers to hire OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman during their temporary departure from the startup in December. Nadella said today the firm — and the world — is only in its second year of the AI platform shift and Microsoft “must ensure we have the capability and capacity to boldly innovate.”
