With its fortune made from creating instructions for desktop computers, Microsoft is betting $1 billion on machines figuring things out on their own. They are investing in OpenAI, a young company that’s among a few in the world pursuing AGI, the commonly-used acronym for artificial general intelligence.
AGI is a still-theoretical form of AI where machines would acquire their own knowledge and perform multiple tasks autonomously, more like the way humans behave in the world. In contrast, present AI systems specialize in single tasks and are regarded as narrow AI. Expert estimates vary about when machines may equal or exceed humans in ability — from decades to more than 100 years away. SILICON ANGLE describes how both Microsoft and OpenAI gain strategic benefits much sooner.
For its $1 billion, Microsoft gets a first look at OpenAI’s progress. Analysts say that may be useful for Microsoft’s Azure cloud services and other plans in its development pipeline. In turn, OpenAI gains access to Microsoft’s infrastructure, which can help speed their development.
OpenAI was initially funded with $1 billion from a high profile investor syndicate that included Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, others) and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn.)
The newly announced investment will help OpenAI keep up with deep-pocketed companies such as Google LLC and Facebook Inc. that are run own cutting-edge AI research initiatives.
OUR TAKE
- OpenAI now shares centre stage in AGI development with Deepmind, the London-based lab owned by Alphabet and still operating under its original identity and management.
- Deepmind is best known for AlphaGo, their reinforcement learning AI model that beat the world’s best GO player in four out of five games, as well as several other breakthroughs, mostly in game environments.
- OpenAI is known for a steady series of smaller advances, including GPT-2, the text-generating AI model deemed by the company ‘too dangerous to release’ in its entirety because of its ease in generating convincing-but-fake text. Soon after they showed the same platform making original tunes when prompted by only a few notes. OpenAI models also are highly competitive in multiplayer strategy games and enable precision dexterity by robots.
- Several leading computer scientists continue to challenge whether AGI is possible — saying talk of prospects is overhyped — making this investment by Microsoft a statement as well as an injection of capital.
- Even at this scale, the Microsoft cash is no guarantee of positive results. AGI evolution is still in its early stages and development has poroven to be costly. But identifying more blind allies is another form of progress — knowing what not to pursue and perhaps why.
ADDITIONAL STORIES
- Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI to pursue artificial intelligence that’s smarter than we are – Washington Post
- Microsoft to Invest $1 Billion in Artificial-Intelligence Startup – Wall Street Journal
- Microsoft Just Invested $1 Billion in the Lab Founded by Elon Musk to Make Artificial Intelligence … – Inc.com
- Microsoft sinks $1B into OpenAI to build ‘supercomputer AI’ for Azure – THE NEXT WEB