Microsoft appoints AI expert Mustafa Suleyman to lead AI division

Microsoft has appointed Mustafa Suleyman as the new leader in its consumer artificial intelligence division, bolstering its position in the rapidly expanding AI sector.

Mustafa Suleyman, who sees artificial intelligence as both a blessing and a threat to humanity, has been appointed by Microsoft to run its consumer division. This appointment adds another significant personality to Microsoft's talent pool.

Co-founder of DeepMind, an AI research lab, Suleyman announced on Tuesday on LinkedIn that he will take over as CEO of Microsoft AI, overseeing all of the company's consumer AI research and products, including the generative AI service Copilot, the Edge browser, and the Bing search engine.

According to a blog post by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the business is also employing some of its best engineers and researchers, as well as the head scientist of Suleyman's AI startup, Inflection. As major tech companies compete for market share in order to capitalize on the demand for AI services, the hirings are expected to strengthen Microsoft's dominant position in the AI business.

Microsoft has joined with Mistral, a popular AI firm in France, and has also partnered with OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, putting billions of dollars into the San Francisco company. Suleyman co-founded the DeepMind AI research group, which Google acquired in 2014. He remained employed there until 2022, when he departed to co-found Inflection.ai with Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, with the goal of developing AI that will not engage in violent, racist, or sexist behavior.