Microsoft research division is 30 years old and is manned by esteemed scientists who have won Turing Awards and Fields Medals. Still the CEO Satya Nadella is concerned that the division is falling behind Google on AI research.

In order to hedge against the research of the rivals, Microsoft is working on an AI model MAI-1 which is large enough to match the models of OpenAI. This confirmation comes in a LinkedIn post from Kevin Scott, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft.

Microsoft was careful about not missing out the work being done at OpenAI and took heed of Kevin Sott’s communication that both Google and OpenAI can process human language in ways Microsoft could not easily replicate. That led to Microsoft’s initial $1 billion investment in Open AI. Microsoft has invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI.

The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella diversified Microsoft’s business in the last 10 years, rather than relying on a single product Windows operating system. In 2014, he pushed Microsoft into the cloud business, gaining a market share of 20 per cent of the global cloud-computing market.

Microsoft has an observer seat on OpenAI’s board, but still if OpenAI decides to pull the rug out under the feet of Microsoft, it should be well-protected. OpenAI may not share the benefits of AGI with Microsoft, as and when it is developed. That makes its position precarious.

Microsoft has therefore, decided to strengthen internal AI teams. It has failed when it released its chatbot Tay that spouted racist and abusive messages. The former DeepMind executive Mustafa Suleyman has been roped in to head its AI division.