Microsoft Hires DeepMind Co-Founder to Run Consumer A.I.

Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab, is leaving the start-up he was running to lead Microsoft’s consumer A.I. business, in another sign of Microsoft’s aggressive plans for the technology.

Mr. Suleyman will report directly to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, the company said on Tuesday.

Mr. Suleyman, whose start-up, Inflection AI, raised $1.5 billion in funding, will be responsible for expanding a consumer A.I. business, including Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, Bing search engine and Edge internet browser.

One of his Inflection AI co-founders, Karén Simonyan, a leading researcher who came from DeepMind as well, will also join Microsoft, as will much of their team.

“I am excited for them to contribute their knowledge, talent and expertise to our consumer A.I. research and product making,” Mr. Nadella said in an email to staff. He added, “We have been operating with speed and intensity, and this infusion of new talent will enable us to accelerate our pace yet again.”

Mr. Suleyman co-founded DeepMind, an ambitious and seminal A.I. lab in London, in 2010. After it made a breakthrough with A.I that could play complex games, DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014.