Microsoft adds former Ai2 researchers, strengthening its Superintelligence team
The wave of departures from the Allen Institute for AI to Microsoft is bigger than ever: A total of at least 10 former Ai2 employees and researchers have joined the tech giant, including the core of the Seattle-based institute’s open model effort OLMo.
In addition to previously reported Microsoft hires — former Ai2 CEO Ali Farhadi, former COO Sophie Lebrecht, and research leaders Hanna Hajishirzi and Ranjay Krishna — former Ai2 researchers now at Microsoft include Luca Soldaini, Kyle Lo, Dirk Groeneveld, Pete Walsh, Matt Jordan and Jake Poznanski.
They joined the Superintelligence team led by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, working on its main goal and AI model after training, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed in response to GeekWire’s investigation. Formed in November, the team is developing what Suleyman calls “human intelligence,” advanced AI systems in areas such as healthcare, energy, and AI companions.
More broadly, Microsoft is working to reduce its reliance on OpenAI for its AI models. The hiring of the Ai2 team brings Microsoft a team with extensive experience in the development of a successful, fully open model, an area where Ai2 punches above its weight.
Ai2 confirmed that the researchers are no longer at the facility.
“While we saw a small number of trips earlier this year, the mission of Ai2 has not changed,” said the spokesperson. “We remain focused on developing a fully open AI ecosystem and advancing AI to improve all of life, science and environmental research.”
As proof of Ai2’s progress, a spokesperson revealed a new cluster of computers brought online last week as part of a $152 million program supported by NSF and Nvidia, known as the Open Multimodal AI Infrastructure to Accelerate Science, or OMAI.
When Farhadi’s departure as CEO was announced in March, Ai2 board chairman Bill Hilf said the cost of competing on the AI frontier as a nonprofit has become a major challenge.
“The cost of doing open modeling research is staggering,” Hilf said at the time, adding that “it’s really hard to do high-quality modeling work within a nonprofit organization.” He said the board needs to examine whether philanthropic dollars are better spent trying to keep up with tech giants who are spending billions on infrastructure to train more advanced models.
Behind the scenes, changes in Ai2’s funding situation also played a role in the exit, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Ai2’s main backer is now the Science and Technology Fund, a $3.1 billion foundation created under Allen’s orders. The funding process has changed from providing an annual budget to a proposal-based process.
A spokesperson for FFST previously said that “the mission and mission of Ai2 remains the same.”
Ai2’s approach to open source AI has set it apart in the industry. Unlike many leading AI labs, the center releases the full weights, training data, code, and testing tools behind its models, allowing outside researchers to test, reproduce, and build upon the work.
Among the remaining leaders at Ai2 is Noah Smith, senior director of research at Ai2 and a University of Washington professor who leads the $152 million OMAI project.
The late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started Ai2 in 2014, with the goal of advancing AI research for the benefit of all. Farhadi has been leading the agency since July 2023, succeeding established CEO Oren Etzioni. Ai2’s board is searching for a new CEO.
In a Q&A posted on May 4 on the Ai2 site, interim CEO Peter Clark explained the way forward, emphasizing long-term research, open models, and using AI in areas such as scientific discovery, integrated AI, and environmental science.
“Ai2 was created to take that long-horizon view,” Clark said in a Q&A. “From the beginning, Paul Allen’s vision has been to advance AI in ways that push science forward while also bringing meaningful benefits to the world, and, obviously, doing it transparently.”
He said that commitment “has become very important in the current environment.”
