Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind, has joined Microsoft as the head of its consumer AI division

Suleyman, a prominent figure in the field of AI, will serve as the CEO of Microsoft AI and will report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. In his new role, Suleyman will lead research on AI products for Microsoft's Copilot, Bing, and Edge offerings. His appointment is seen as a significant win for Microsoft in the competitive AI talent race.

Before joining Microsoft, Suleyman was the CEO and co-founder of Inflection AI, a startup that experienced rapid growth during the boom of generative AI. The company raised $1.3 billion in funding, with investments from Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Nvidia. Suleyman's departure from Inflection has led to the appointment of Sean White as CEO, and the company has announced that Inflection-2.5 will be hosted on Microsoft Azure.

Prior to his time at Inflection, Suleyman was one of the founders of DeepMind, an AI company known for its achievements in deep reinforcement learning and game-based testing. DeepMind's AlphaGo famously defeated a Go world champion in 2015, and its AlphaStar beat a top professional player at StarCraft II in 2019. Google acquired DeepMind for $400 million in 2014.

Suleyman is also recognized for his work on the ethical implications of AI. In his book titled "The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma," he explores the impact of AI on society and proposes a containment program to address the potential risks associated with the rapid proliferation of AI technologies. Suleyman is a senior fellow at The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and serves as a board member at The Economist.