Microsoft is reportedly developing a new AI model known as MAI-1 that could potentially compete with offerings from Google and Anthropic. The specific purpose of this model has not yet been determined, but it may compete with OpenAI, in which Microsoft has made a significant investment.
In a blog post by CTO Kevin Scott, Microsoft announced plans to continue building large supercomputers for OpenAI in the future. These supercomputers are used to train cutting-edge models that are then made available in products and services for widespread use.
MAI-1 is overseen by Mustafa Suleyman, a co-founder of Google DeepMind who was hired by Microsoft in March along with his team from AI start-up Inflection. Despite Microsoft paying $65 million for the rights to Inflection’s intellectual property, MAI-1 is distinct from the models Inflection released.
According to reports, MAI-1 will be much larger than the smaller, open-source models that Microsoft has previously trained. This means it will require more data and computing power, making it more expensive to develop. Roughly 500 billion parameters are estimated for MAI-1, in comparison to over 1 trillion parameters for OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Smaller models released by other companies like Meta Platforms and Mistral have around 70 billion parameters, while Microsoft’s Phi-3 mini model released last month offers 3.8 billion parameters. MAI-1 is expected to be a significant advancement in AI technology and could potentially impact the market share of existing players like Google and Anthropic.
