Microsoft insiders have expressed their concern about the company's AI strategy, particularly its strong focus on collaboration with OpenAI. Some of the insiders spoken to by Business Insider said that the company has turned into an "IT for OpenAI."
As the company's internal teams working on various AI products and applications focused more on cooperation with OpenAI, several heads of AI departments left their positions.
One of these executives said that products like Azure Cognitive Search, Azure AI Bot, and Kinect DK are all but gone. A Microsoft representative practically confirmed this statement, saying that these services exist in one form or another, but they are no longer part of Azure AI, or have been renamed or merged with other products.
Insiders say that the company is currently focusing more resources and attention on Azure OpenAI services than on its own Azure AI services, which used to be a priority for the tech giant.
Сервіс Azure OpenAI має сотні працівників, які підтримують клієнтів хмарних сервісів Azure, що використовують моделі GPT. Деякі працівники Microsoft настільки тісно співпрацюють з OpenAI, що у них є перепустки в офіс OpenAI.
"The former Azure AI is literally the tech support for OpenAI. Eric Boyd (head of AI Platform at Microsoft) effectively supports the OpenAI service. It is not an innovation engine like it used to be. It is now more of an IT for OpenAI. The heart of innovation is elsewhere. It's not very innovative, but it's good for business," says the former executive.