Microsoft hires DeepMind co-founder to head consumer AI

Driving the news: In a blog post, Microsoft said Suleyman and Inflection co-founder Karén Simonyan, along with other Inflection employees, would join the company.

• Suleyman will oversee Microsoft's Copilot project, and Simonyan will become chief scientist.

Catch up quick: Inflection AI, founded in 2022 by Suleyman, Silicon Valley investor Reid Hoffman and Karén Simonyan, last June raised $1.3 billion at a reported $4 billion valuation.

• It has since debuted Pi, an AI-powered chatbot competing with OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Yes, but: Suleyman admitted to Bloomberg that the company has struggled to find a sustainable business model.

• This is in sharp contrast to his comments at Axios' BFD event last October, where he said he wants "to build a multi $100 billion business. ... Hopefully one day we'll IPO."
• Inflection said it will pivot to selling software to other businesses.

Between the lines: Two weeks ago, Inflection was touting the new version of Pi.

• The generative AI business is moving at warp speed.

Go deeper:

• Artificial intelligence's $100 billion possibility
• Inflection AI founders on Trump, Twitter and Pi
• AI pioneer Mustafa Suleyman: AI needs a "containment" plan