All about Artificial intelligence
All about OpenAI
In the competitive environment of the technology industry, every move is often carefully planned. The release of recent internal emails from Microsoft offers insight into the company’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT) in 2019. The motivation? Concern that Google was ahead of the curve in the artificial intelligence (AI) race, leaving Microsoft at a disadvantage.
The email correspondence, titled “Thoughts on OpenAI,” reveals discussions between Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, CEO Satya Nadella and co-founder Bill Gates. The emails were released this Tuesday (30) as part of the US Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust case against Google, as Business Insider reports.
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Microsoft’s behind-the-scenes email thread
- In them, Scott admits that Microsoft was “several years behind” Google in terms of scalability of its AI efforts.
- It details the painstaking process that Microsoft engineers had to follow to replicate Google’s BERT language model, highlighting infrastructure deficiencies that hampered progress.
- What initially seemed like a disparaging view toward OpenAI and Google’s AI efforts quickly turned to concern as Scott dug deeper into the difference in capabilities between the two companies.
- Google’s early AI models, especially in natural language processing, gave it a competitive advantage over Bing, Microsoft’s search engine.
- Scott even acknowledged the effectiveness of Google’s autocomplete features in Gmail. He forwarded the email to Microsoft CFO Amy Hood, emphasizing the urgency of the situation. Hood, responsible for overseeing the company’s financial objectives, understood the importance of closing the AI gap with Google.
Although the email thread has several censored portions, it suggests ongoing discussions between Microsoft and OpenAI, with Gates reportedly playing a crucial role. Although Gates left the Microsoft board in 2020, his influence in forming the partnership with OpenAI is still evident.
Looking at the present, Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has exceeded $13 billion. The integration of OpenAI models into Microsoft products, from Office applications to the Bing search engine and even the Windows operating system, has positioned Microsoft as a leader in AI innovation.
