Microsoft Corp.’s decision to invest heavily and collaborate with OpenAI stemmed from concerns about lagging behind Google, as revealed in an internal email disclosed Tuesday amid the Justice Department’s antitrust case against the search giant.
Chief technical officer of the Windows software maker Kevin Scott stated in a 2019 communication to co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella that he was “very, very worried” about the AI model-training capability gap between Alphabet Inc.’s and Microsoft’s efforts.
The exchange reveals how the company’s top executives conceded in private that they were behind OpenAI and Google’s DeepMind in terms of infrastructure and development speed.
After media outlets including the New York Times and Bloomberg participated in the historic antitrust lawsuit to demand wider public access, the email was made public late on Tuesday.
According to the US Justice Department, if Google hadn’t monopolized the search industry, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other inventions may have been launched years earlier.
Scott, who is also executive vice president of artificial intelligence at Microsoft, noted that the Alphabet company’s advances in AI have led to improvements in competitive measures for Google’s search product. An official at Microsoft wrote that he erred in ignoring some of its competitors’ earlier AI initiatives.
In the email, Scott stated, “We are multiple years behind the competition in terms of machine learning scale.” A significant portion of the mail labeled “Thoughts on OpenAI” has been censored. After endorsing Scott’s email and passing it to Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer, Nadella said it clarifies “why I want us to do this.”
Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in its partnership with OpenAI, leveraging their generative AI tech to enhance Bing, Edge, and integrate AI Copilot into Windows. CEO Nadella prioritizes AI, appointing DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to lead the consumer AI business.
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