Microsoft’s AI Guru Wants Independence From OpenAI. That’s Easier Said Than Done

After setbacks, Mustafa Suleyman appears to be making slow progress on his mission to reduce Microsoft's dependence on OpenAI.

Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman. Image via Getty

Mustafa Suleyman wasn’t getting the answers he wanted.

Last fall, during a video call with senior leaders at OpenAI and Microsoft, Suleyman—who leads Microsoft’s in-house artificial intelligence unit—wanted OpenAI staffers to explain how its latest model, o1, worked, according to someone present for the conversation and two other Microsoft employees who were briefed on it. He was peeved that OpenAI wasn’t providing Microsoft with documentation about how it had programmed o1 to think about users’ queries before answering them. The process, known as chain of thought, is a key ingredient in the secret recipe of any AI model.