March 15, 2023
Microsoft has fired an entire team dedicated to guiding AI development that results in ethical, responsible, and long-term outcomes known as ethical AI team.
This move is part of a recent round of layoffs affecting 10,000 employees across the company, as well as increased investment in the company’s collaboration with OpenAI. It is also part of an effort to redesign its Bing search engine and Edge web browser to run on a new, next-generation large language model that is “more potent than ChatGPT and designed specifically for search.”
The fired team of engineers, designers, and philosophers worked to identify risks posed by Microsoft’s adoption of OpenAI’s technology across its portfolio of products, including the Bing Search engine. The move deprives Microsoft of a solely devoted team to ensure that its AI principles are tightly linked to product design at a time when the company is leading the charge to make AI tools available to the general public.
Despite the layoffs, Microsoft is reportedly increasing its overall investment in responsibility work, adding that it is committed to developing Al-powered products by “investing in people, processes, and partnerships.”
Nonetheless, Microsoft maintains a separate Office of Responsible AI that is in charge of developing principles and guidelines to oversee artificial intelligence initiatives.
The sources for this piece include an article in TechCrunch.
