Sebastien Bubeck served as vice president of generative AI at Microsoft
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has successfully recruited Microsoft's vice president of generative AI research Sebastien Bubeck.
The move, announced by Microsoft last week, underscores the growing competition among tech giants for top talent as the AI race accelerates.
“Sebastien has decided to leave Microsoft to further his work toward developing artificial general intelligence (AGI). We appreciate the contributions Sebastien has made to Microsoft and look forward to continuing our relationship through his work with OpenAI,” Microsoft said in a statement.
AGI is a hypothetical type of AI that can understand and learn tasks like a human.
Bubeck joined Microsoft more than a decade ago and notably worked on research into small language and vision models for use in edge devices. While Bubeck’s new role has yet to be announced, this is an area in which OpenAI has been less prominent, which could signal another strategy behind the move.
Microsoft and OpenAI have maintained a strategic partnership since 2019 through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs, with the third phase announced in January 2023. Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion into OpenAI.
Microsoft integrates OpenAI's GPT models into its suite of products like Azure and Office. However, the latest executive shift raises questions about the evolving dynamics between the two companies.
OpenAI recently announced it has raised $6.6 billion in new funding, bringing the company’s valuation to $157 billion. The company said it would use the new funding to accelerate progress on its mission to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”
Bubeck’s departure to OpenAI is a potentially pivotal moment given the growing role of generative AI technologies in shaping the future of business operations, software development and digital services. This hire could bolster OpenAI’s strategic ambitions as it seeks to maintain its leadership position in AI and machine learning research.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been vocal about the need to scale up AI’s potential and the addition of a seasoned leader from a competitor could help the company stay ahead in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Four senior OpenAI executives left the company in recent months, leading Altman to deny that their departure had anything to do with restructuring that the board had been considering. Altman himself was fired and then almost immediately rehired in November 2023.
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