Microsoft AI will get a brand new London hub headed by former Inflection and DeepMind scientist Jordan Hoffman

Microsoft has introduced a brand new London hub for its lately unveiled client AI division. can be in entrance of Jordan HoffmanAn AI scientist and engineer Microsoft lately picked up from a high-profile AI startup Inflection AIWho Microsoft invested final yr,

This information comes about three weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Unveiled a brand new client AI division Chaired by the founders of Inflection AI, together with Mustafa Suleiman – co-founder of AI firm DeepMind Google acquired in 2014,

At the time, Nadella stated that “several members of the Inflexion team” additionally joined Microsoft’s new AI unit (Bloomberg) advised that probably the most truly joined). We now know that one in every of them was Hoffman, a former PhD pupil who joined DeepMind as a analysis scientist in 2020 earlier than leaping ship to Inflection AI after Suleiman based the startup in 2022 and Started poaching staff from DeepMind and Meta,

one in right this moment’s weblog submitSuleiman calls Hoffman an “extraordinary AI scientist and engineer,” and with Suleiman himself reporting on to Nadella within the U.S., Hoffman will take cost of the brand new London unit.

Suleiman stated they’ll start posting new jobs within the “coming weeks and months” to seek out new AI expertise to affix Hoffman at Microsoft’s Paddington workplace, the place they’ll develop new language fashions and associated infrastructure and tooling.

This additionally feeds into one other corridor announcement made in conjunction With the UK authorities, the place Microsoft stated it will make investments £2.5 billion ($3.15 billion) within the UK over the subsequent three years, together with increasing its datacenter footprint and “training more than one million people for the AI ​​economy”. shall embrace.

Britain is taken into account one of many Top tier nations globally Following the US and China by way of AI R&D funding, and with Google’s DeepMind additionally based mostly within the UK capital, we may see a significant expertise tug-of-war between the 2 frontrunners within the race for AI dominance.

On a associated be aware, Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis was lately Knighthood awarded For “services to artificial intelligence”.

TechCrunch contacted Microsoft for touch upon the dimensions of its UK AI Hub, however the firm stated it was not disclosing some other particulars at the moment.