In a pivot to his eventful career, Mustafa Suleyman, the Inflection AI and DeepMind co-founder has joined Microsoft to steer its AI initiatives. “​​I’ll be leading all consumer AI products and research, including Copilot, Bing and Edge,” said Suleyman, sharing this surprising career update on X.

His career in AI began in 2010, along with Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg. The three of them co-founded DeepMind, an AI research firm focused on developing powerful algorithms. 

As the head of product at DeepMind’s applied AI division, Suleyman oversaw projects in healthcare and energy. He also co-authored several influential papers, including ‘The kinetics human action video dataset’ and ‘Teaching machines to read and comprehend’. He was also instrumental in Google’s 2014 acquisition of the company for over $500 million. 

Following the acquisition, he was quietly shuffled to Google from DeepMind in 2020, where he was the VP, AI product management & AI policy. Two years later, Suleyman left Google and started Inflection AI. This company offers a personal AI chatbot, Pi, that can be used as a therapist which offers empathetic responses and has a ‘single mission of making you happier, healthier and more productive’. 

It isn’t surprising that Mustafa was interested in building something like Pi. Since the age of 17, much before DeepMind, he had co-founded the Muslim Youth Helpline in 2001, which later became one of the largest mental health support services for the community in the UK.

It is, however, surprising that he chose to abandon Inflection to join Microsoft when Pi had only recently received its massive funding. Quickly giving up on his dream of building the AI chatbot at Inflection that would help humanity has raised a few eyebrows. “Not a good sign for Inflection.ai,” said Yann LeCun. 

For Microsoft, though, it is a mind boggling choice to poach the head of a company they’ve invested in. This ‘acqui-hire’ of the top talent from Inflection could be one way to avoid antitrust scrutiny. While Microsoft’s investment gave it a front-row view of Inflection’s progress, it also made Microsoft’s hiring raid look opportunistic. 

But is Mustafa Suleyman the right fit with Microsoft’s work culture?

Who is Mustafa Suleyman?

Suleyman grew up in a working-class family, born in London to a Syrian father, who was a taxi driver and an English mother, who worked as a nurse. He attended state schools before studying philosophy at Oxford University but dropped out to build the largest mental health support services for Muslims.

It was at Oxford that Suleyman met his future DeepMind co-founder, Hassabis. The duo bonded over their shared interest in AI and its potential to positively impact the world. 

As the product head of DeepMind, Suleyman played a pivotal role in developing AlphaGo. He, however, left his post after an investigation into complaints about his management style. He has since publicly apologised, stating in an interview, “I really screwed up. I was very demanding and pretty relentless. I remain very sorry for the hurt that people felt there.”

Suleyman reflected that the experience “gave me the opportunity to really take a step back and reflect and grow and mature a little bit as a manager and a leader.” He has been working with a coach to improve his management approach.

During the short stint at Google, Suleyman turned sceptic about the unchecked growth of AI. He has consistently warned about the dangers of unchecked development in AI and has warned of a possible, “catastrophe of an unimaginable scale”.

He also suggested that a pause in development might be necessary in the near future, saying, “I don’t rule it out. And I think that at some point over the next five years or so, we’re going to have to consider that question very seriously.”

In his 2023 book ‘The Coming Wave,’ Suleyman argued that biological developments with AI and other burgeoning technologies could allow “a diverse array of bad actors to unleash disruption, instability, and even catastrophe on an unimaginable scale”.

Despite his flip-flopping stance on AI’s potential dangers, Suleyman has consistently proposed solutions to manage these risks. Recognised by TIME as one of the 100 Most Influential People in AI, Suleyman may have differed in his assessment of AI’s threat level, but remains focused on pragmatic governance. 

He has emphasised the need for good institutions and a conceptual framework for thinking about AI, saying, “AI governance must be targeted, risk-based, and modular, rather than one-size-fits-all.”

Currently, in his new position as the CEO of Microsoft AI, Suleyman will oversee a significant portion of the tech giant’s AI endeavours. Mikhail Parakhin, CEO of Microsoft’s advertising and web services, and his entire team, including those working on Copilot, Bing, and Edge, will report directly to Suleyman. 

Additionally, Misha Bilenko, corporate vice president of GenAI at Microsoft, and his team will also fall under Suleyman’s purview.

This new set of responsibilities, a contrast to the ones he held at Google, will “double down on innovation”, pausing his efforts in ethical AI. 

Suleyman’s transition to Microsoft aligns with his conviction that, “The competitive nature of companies and of nation states is going to mean that every organisation is going to race to get their hands on intelligence. Intelligence is going to be a new form of capital.” 

His choice to join Microsoft could indicate his belief in the company’s potential to win this race, while Satya Nadella is optimistic that Suleyman will navigate the balance between innovation and responsible AI.