OpenAI used to prevent Microsoft pursuing AGI. Now, the software giant is free to compete, Mustafa Suleyman says.

"In the race to build powerful artificial intelligence, has had its hands tied behind it back for years. Now, the software giant is free to compete, according to top executive Mustafa Suleyman. Suleyman recently unveiled a superintelligence team at Microsoft and he spoke with Business Insider about how this came about and the company's future plans. What's clear from the interview is that Microsoft will aggressively pursue artificial general intelligence, technology capable of outperforming humans in a wide variety of tasks."

"This is a major departure from Microsoft's approach in recent years. The company mostly focused on building smaller models, post-training existing models for new purposes, and channeling resources toward OpenAI instead of trying to build in-house frontier models that would compete with the startup's GPT offerings. A big reason for this narrower strategy was Microsoft's previous agreement with OpenAI. That deal barred Microsoft from developing its own AGI through 2030, according to a person familiar with the matter."

"The superintelligence team will focus on building a "world-class, frontier-grade research capability in-house," Mustafa, Microsoft's AI CEO, told Business Insider in a recent interview. "Microsoft needs to be self-sufficient in AI," he said. "And to do that, we have to train frontier models of all scales with our own data and compute at the state-of-the-art level.""

Microsoft created a superintelligence team led by Mustafa Suleyman to build in-house frontier AI and pursue artificial general intelligence. The company will develop state-of-the-art models using its own data and compute to become self-sufficient in AI. This marks a shift from prior strategy of focusing on smaller models, fine-tuning existing models, and directing resources to OpenAI. A renegotiated deal removed a restriction that previously barred Microsoft from developing its own AGI through 2030. The new unit positions Microsoft in direct competition with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and Meta as it pursues frontier research capabilities.

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