Microsoft to open new AI hub in London

Microsoft is to open a new artificial intelligence hub in London to work on its AI products and research into the technology.

The US tech giant recently announced the creation of Microsoft AI, a new team within the company to focus on AI, led by Mustafa Suleyman, the British co-founder of AI giant DeepMind, which is now owned by Google.

Mr Suleyman said the new AI hub, which will be based at Microsoft’s offices in Paddington, will “drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure, and to create world-class tooling for foundation models”.

Writing in a blog post announcing the new hub, he said: “This is great news for Microsoft AI and for the UK.

“As a British citizen, born and raised in London, I’m proud to have co-founded and built a cutting-edge AI business here.

“I’m deeply aware of the extraordinary talent pool and AI ecosystem in the UK, and I’m excited to make this commitment to the UK on behalf of Microsoft AI.

“I know – through my close work with thought leaders in the UK Government, business community and academia – that the country is committed to advancing AI responsibly and with a safety-first commitment to drive investment, innovation and economic growth.

“Our decision to open this hub in the UK reflects this ambition.”

He added that the hub will create jobs, with Microsoft AI “actively hiring exceptional individuals who want to work on the most interesting and challenging AI questions of our time”.

The creation of the AI centre further expands Microsoft’s presence in the UK, which includes its Microsoft Research lab in Cambridge, and builds on the company’s pledge to invest £2.5 billion into the UK, announced late last year, as part of its AI plans.