Microsoft loses AI expertise: Bubeck moves to OpenAI

In the latest personnel change in the tech world, Sebastien Bubeck, Vice President for GenAI Research at Microsoft, has announced his departure to join OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. The exact role Bubeck will take on at the Microsoft-backed AI startup remains unclear. Microsoft emphasized that it looks forward to continued collaboration with Bubeck through his work at OpenAI. Bubeck himself was initially unavailable for comment. Many of the researchers who worked with Bubeck on Microsoft's Phi LLMs project will remain at Microsoft and continue to advance the development of these smaller language models. Bubeck's move follows a series of departures from OpenAI, most recently that of Mira Murati, the long-standing Chief Technology Officer, in September. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed speculation that these personnel changes are related to a company restructuring.