12:44 PM EDT, 03/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) on Tuesday announced the appointments of Mustafa Suleyman and Karen Simonyan to head a new business segment called Microsoft AI.

Suleyman and Simonyan are co-founders of artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI, a rival of Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI.

Prior to starting Inflection AI, Suleyman co-founded DeepMind Technologies, an AI company that was acquired by Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google ( GOOG ) in 2014.

Suleyman will lead Microsoft AI as chief executive, reporting to Microsoft ( MSFT ) CEO Satya Nadella, while Simonyan will be the Chief Scientist of the division.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) also hired "several members" of the Inflection team who had chosen to join Suleyman and Simonyan.

Microsoft AI will be focused on advancing the company's Copilot and other consumer AI products and research, Nadella said in a statement.

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