According to an internal email published on April 30, the motivation for Microsoft to invest heavily in OpenAI comes from the feeling of falling behind Google.
The email disclosure is part of the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Google. Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott expressed “very, very worried” looked at the gap in AI model training capabilities between Alphabet and Microsoft in a 2019 letter to CEO Satya Nadella and co-founder Bill Gates.
The exchange content shows that Microsoft’s top leaders tacitly admit that they lack the infrastructure and development speed to keep up with Google’s OpenAI and DeepMind.
The US Department of Justice argues that OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other innovations could have been released years ago if Google did not monopolize the search market.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has made the AI race a top priority at the company. Photo: Bloomberg
According to the observations of Scott, who is also Vice President of artificial intelligence (AI) at Microsoft, Google’s search product has improved in competitive indicators because of advances by parent company Alphabet. in AI. He shared that he made the mistake of dismissing some of his competitors’ previous AI efforts.
“We’re years behind our competitors in scaling machine learning,” Scott said in an email. The important parts of the letter are titled “Thoughts on OpenAI.” Nadella forwarded Scott’s email to Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood and said it explained “why I want us to do this”.
Microsoft has poured more than $13 billion into OpenAI, exploiting the startup’s generative AI technology to enhance its Bing search service, Edge Internet browser, and most notably, integrating its Copilot AI service into Windows.
CEO Nadella has made the AI race a top priority at the company, and recruited DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman to run the consumer AI business.
Nadella answered questions about emails when he testified at trial in the fall of 2023. At that time, he said investing in OpenAI was not focused on search.
Microsoft and Google refused to provide emails when requested by reporters last year on the grounds that it would reveal sensitive business information.
The media pushed for its release and judge Amit Mehta last week ordered the companies to provide a redacted version.
Google and the US Department of Justice will present closing arguments in the case on May 1 and May 2 (local time). Judge Mehta is expected to announce his decision later this year.
(Theo Bloomberg)
