How Microsoft Swallowed Its Pride to Make a Massive Bet on OpenAI

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By Aaron Holmes [email protected] ­om Profile and archive → Follow Aaron on Twitter

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Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it.

Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI. Lee told Nadella Microsoft’s researchers were blown away by the model’s ability to understand conversational language and generate humanlike answers, and they believed it showed sparks of artificial general intelligence—capabilities on par with those of a human mind.

But Nadella abruptly cut off Lee midsentence, demanding to know how OpenAI had managed to surpass the capabilities of the AI project Microsoft’s 1,500-person research team had been working on for decades. “OpenAI built this with 250 people,” Nadella said, according to Lee, who is executive vice president and head of Microsoft Research. “Why do we have Microsoft Research at all?”

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By Aaron Holmes [email protected] ­om Profile and archive → Follow Aaron on Twitter. Subscribe Now. Satya Nadella didn’t want to hear it. Last December, Peter Lee, who oversees Microsoft’s sprawling research efforts, was briefing Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, and his deputies about a series of tests Microsoft had conducted of GPT-4, the then-unreleased new artificial intelligence large-language model built by OpenAI. Lee told Nadella Microsoft’s researchers were blown away by the model’s ability to understand conversational language and generate humanlike answers, and they believed it showed sparks of artificial general intelligence—capabilities on par with those of a human mind. But Nadella abruptly cut off Lee midsentence, demanding to know how OpenAI had managed to surpass the capabilities of the AI project Microsoft’s 1,500-person research team had been working on for decades. “OpenAI built this with 250 people,” Nadella said, according to Lee, who is executive vice president and head of Microsoft Research. “Why do we have Microsoft Research at all?” Join now to read the full story. Get Started. - or - Already a subscriber? Log in here. Latest Articles   The Weekend culture ai Live from SF, It’s Tech Week By Jon Steinberg · June 3, 2023 6:00 AM PDT Hi, welcome to your Weekend.It was the boom-iest of times, it was the doom-iest of times. At least that’s how it feels right now in Dickensian San Francisco, where AI companies are setting up shop on every avenue, while fentanyl dealers are hanging out in every alley. I joke—but seriously, it’s wild out here. No fewer than 17 of the 35 startups listed on The Information’s new Generative AI... Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino to Start Monday By Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Erin Woo · June 4, 2023. Second Twitter Safety Executive Resigns By Erin Woo · June 2, 2023. Executive Order on Outbound Investment Will be ‘Narrow’ and ‘Administrable' By Kate Clark · June 2, 2023. Join live video Q&A’s. Exclusive. startups crypto. MoonPay CEO, Other Executives Cashed Out Before Crypto Business Dropped. In November 2021, just as crypto prices were hitting all-time highs, MoonPay—a crypto payments startup that celebrities including Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton had praised for its non-fungible token “concierge” service— announced it had completed its first ever outside fundraising: an eye-popping $555 million round at a $3.4 billion valuation from investors including Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management. semiconductors ai. Why Nvidia Aids Cloud Rivals of AWS, Google and Microsoft. Nvidia’s business of selling chips for artificial intelligence is going gangbusters, but the company faces a looming problem. Exclusive. startups Finance. Growth Wanes at Instacart, Gopuff. Grocery upstarts Instacart and Gopuff haven’t been able to deliver two things at once this year: growth and profits. Exclusive. apple ar/vr. Apple’s Learning Curve: How Headset’s Design Caused Production Challenges. If Apple unveils its long-awaited mixed-reality headset next week as expected, it will represent the company’s riskiest gamble on a new product since the iPhone. Opinion. ar/vr. Don’t Count the Metaverse Out. The technology hype cycle would have us believe that the metaverse—so recently the darling of digital trendsetters—is on the decline, its place usurped by generative artificial intelligence. The Electric. electric vehicles. The Electric: Western Auto and Battery Makers’ Big Gamble on Indonesian Nickel. For much of the last century, metals companies have made stainless steel from nickel mined in Russia or the Philippines and smelted at temperatures up to 2,900 degrees.