Recently, the AI talent market in Silicon Valley has seen a storm, as Mustafa Suleyman, head of Microsoft's consumer-level AI strategy, has begun to aggressively poach core employees from his former team at DeepMind, successfully recruiting more than 20 key staff members. As a former partner, Suleyman is now turning his attention to his old employer, directly affecting Google's AI development capabilities.
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In this talent war, Amar Subramanya, the former head of the Gemini chatbot engineering team at Google, has also confirmed that he will join Microsoft as a vice president for artificial intelligence. He stated on his personal social media platform that Microsoft's culture was refreshing to him, and the team atmosphere was both humble and ambitious. In addition to Subramanya, Microsoft has also convinced several other core employees from DeepMind to join, showing its strong demand for talent.
According to sources, Microsoft has recruited at least 24 employees from DeepMind in the past six months. At this time, major technology companies are intensifying efforts to poach top AI researchers and engineers from competitors, leading to a rapid rise in industry salary levels. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once criticized other companies for using high signing bonuses to attract talent, believing that it encouraged a "profit-driven" trend.
With Suleyman's poaching activities, Microsoft not only gains valuable technical expertise but may also disrupt Google's research and development process. Suleyman joined Microsoft in March this year, previously holding his current position after his startup company Inflection was acquired by Microsoft. His strategic intention is evident, as he aims to quickly assemble an efficient team to accelerate Microsoft's layout in key AI areas.
At the same time, Google is also reorganizing due to internal personnel changes to cope with increasingly fierce competition. Google data shows that ChatGPT's monthly active users have reached 600 million, while its own Gemini is only 400 million. It has also been reported that Google has lured some researchers away from Microsoft, indicating the intense competition between the two companies in the talent war.
Notably, the high salaries offered by tech giants to top AI talents reflect a significant contradiction in the industry. Despite this, many regular employees are facing the pressure of layoffs. Microsoft recently cut 9,100 positions, trying to reallocate resources to AI transformation by streamlining operations. This trend is prevalent throughout the tech industry, forming a new high-salary expert class while squeezing the living space of a large number of ordinary employees.
Key Points:
🔍 Suleyman led Microsoft to poach over 20 core employees from DeepMind, affecting Google's AI R&D.
🚀 Amar Subramanya confirmed joining Microsoft, emphasizing that its team culture is exciting.
💰 Tech giants offer high salaries for AI talents, but regular employees face the pressure of layoffs, forming an industry contradiction.