Discover the latest developments in the AI world with Sam Altman and Greg Brockman joining Microsoft, post their departure from OpenAI.
Unlocking Potential: The Sam Atman and Microsoft Partnership
Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman are the latest power recruits for Microsoft.
Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose recent departure occurred due to the board's lack of confidence in his leadership, has excitingly transitioned to a new venture along with his colleague Brockman. They've been welcomed with open arms at Microsoft. With a proud full heart, CEO Satya Nadella announced
“We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team,” says Nadella. “We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.”
Altman accepted his new role at Microsoft and received praise from Nadella, who hinted at the autonomy and unique identity he wishes Altman to cultivate within the tech conglomerate, similar to GitHub, Mojang Studios, and LinkedIn.
This move signifies the software giant's practice of designating CEO leadership to pivotal branches or separate large-scale enterprises, possibly signalling a grand vision for Microsoft’s AI research team.
Moreover, Microsoft’s new team encompasses several stellar talents from OpenAI, including Jakub Pachocki, director of research, and other top leaders from OpenAI as revealed by Brockman, hinting at more departures.
Intriguingly, Altman’s appointment at Microsoft occurred shortly after unsuccessful talks for his reinstatement at OpenAI. The interim CEO position was filled by Emmett Shear, former Twitch CEO, succeeding Mira Murati post Altman’s sudden dismissal.
Altman's attempts to reclaim his CEO role were stonewalled by the adamant OpenAI board - sources say. Furthermore, he allegedly projected a startup geared towards the creation of specialized AI Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, pole position rivals Nvidia, to investors. Codenamed “Tigris,” the project was popular among venture firms and even kindled Microsoft's interest.
A week after announcing that Microsoft has created a custom AI chip to train extensive language models and avert expensive dependence on Nvidia, we now have a new advanced AI research team led by Altman and Brockman. Microsoft has also engineered an Arm-based CPU for its cloud workload. The new silicon chips are designated drivers for the Azure data centres.
While at OpenAI, Altman was instrumental in refining and testing the Maia AI chip with Microsoft. Despite underplaying the chip's influence on its Nvidia partnership, Microsoft is currently developing the second generation of the Maia series.
Remaining invested in a "multi-billion dollar arrangement" with OpenAI, that is estimated to be around $10 billion, Microsoft continues to be the sole cloud partner driving all OpenAI workloads.
“We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners,” Nadella said in his statement. “We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”
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