A new AI hub has been established in London with the support of Microsoft AI, a software company founded in March.
As per Mustafa Suleyman, the Executive Vice President and CEO of Microsoft AI, the Microsoft AI London center will collaborate with the Microsoft team and partners like OpenAI to enhance base models, their accompanying systems, and tools.
In a statement, Suleyman expressed his recognition of the exceptional talent pool and AI ecosystem in the U.K., stating his enthusiasm for this decision on behalf of Microsoft AI.
He mentioned his active engagement with key figures in the U.K. government, business sector, and academia, emphasizing their shared commitment to advancing AI responsibly and prioritizing safety to drive investment, progress, and economic development. The establishment of this hub in the U.K. reflects this collective vision.
The newly launched AI hub will be overseen by Jordan Hoffman, formerly associated with Inflection and DeepMind, along with a team of Microsoft AI specialists based in the London Paddington office.
Microsoft plans to announce job vacancies and commence recruitment in the coming weeks and months.
This initiative adds to Microsoft’s existing footprint in the U.K., which includes the Microsoft Research Cambridge laboratory and a substantial investment of 2.5 billion pounds (approximately $3.2 billion) to prepare the U.K. workforce for the AI era and construct AI infrastructure.
Suleyman, a co-founder of Inflection and DeepMind, assumed leadership of Microsoft’s consumer AI division in March, unifying the division under one leader for the first time. Microsoft also onboarded a significant portion of Inflection’s workforce.
On April 1, the U.K. and the United States announced a collaborative effort to advance safe AI development. Both countries’ AI Safety Institutes have committed to joint testing of cutting-edge AI models and fostering global AI safety initiatives through partnerships with other nations. They have agreed to conduct at least one joint test utilizing a publicly accessible model.
