Mustafa Suleyman, The New Face of Microsoft’s AI Division

Microsoft named British AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman as the head of its AI division. Suleyman, who co-founded Google’s DeepMind, will now report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Suleyman’s Role at Microsoft

In his new role, Suleyman will oversee various AI projects at Microsoft, including:

• Integration of AI Copilot into Windows
• Adding conversation elements to Microsoft’s Bing search engine
• Consolidating all consumer AI projects under one leader

Mustafa Suleyman’s Background

• Son of a Syrian-born taxi driver and an English nurse
• Grew up in the London Borough of Islington
• Studied philosophy and theology at Oxford, but dropped out in second year
• Founded the Muslim Youth Helpline, a UK charity
• Advised former London mayor Ken Livingstone on human rights policy at age 22

Journey with DeepMind and Inflection AI

• Co-founded DeepMind in 2010, serving as head of applied AI
• Promoted ethical use of AI technology
• Left Google in 2022 to found Inflection AI
• Inflection AI developed popular AI chatbot Pi and raised $1.3 billion in funding

Key Hires from Inflection AI

Suleyman is not the only one joining Microsoft from Inflection AI:

• Karen Simonyan, co-founder and chief scientist at Inflection AI, will become chief scientist for Microsoft AI.
• Other Inflection employees are also expected to defect to Microsoft.

Reporting Structure at Microsoft

At Microsoft, the following teams will report to Suleyman:

• Mikhail Prakhin, CEO of Microsoft’s Advertising and Web Services (including Copilot, Bing, and Edge)
• Misha Bilenko, CVP of GenAI at Microsoft, and his entire team

With Suleyman’s expertise and the influx of talent from Inflection AI, Microsoft aims to strengthen its position in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.