After raising $1.3B, Inflection is eaten alive by its biggest investor, Microsoft
TechCrunchMar 20
Suleyman Hired to Run Consumer AI for Microsoft
The Facts
Mustafa Suleyman, who's a co-founder of Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence (AI) lab and was most recently the head of the startup Inflection AI, was hired on Tuesday as Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft AI.
Another Inflection AI co-founder, Karen Simonyan, will serve as Microsoft AI's chief scientist and will be one of several other employees from the startup moving to a new division of Microsoft that brings all of its consumer AI products, including the Copilot chatbot and the new Bing browser, under one roof.
The Spin
Narrative A
After failing to completely take over OpenAI, Microsoft has now used its financial might to gut Inflection AI in an attempt to conquer the generative AI world. Time will tell if the tech behemoth is a positive actor looking to responsibly develop advanced AI technologies or if it will act as a monopoly with little regard for the effects on the world.
Narrative B
Microsoft is the leader in the generative AI race, and this move will help keep the company out in front. With Suleyman on board, there's no looking back. His well-publicized concerns about AI safety will make sure Microsoft accelerates the development of the technology responsibly.
Nerd narrative
There's a 90% chance that the US will have passed legislation that requires cybersecurity around AI models before Jan. 1, 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.