Microsoft's new models give it a better moat

With its new MAI models, Microsoft is drawing a line under its relationship with OpenAI - and signalling a different approach to training data

I have been snarking the breakup of Microsoft and OpenAI for a while; Microsoft having to parachute an adult onto the board two and a half years ago was probably the first step and the point where Microsoft was considering suing them over breaking the contract by hosting models on AWS last month was probably the last step.

They had got to the conscious uncoupling stage by April:

And then came Build, where the keynote was full of everyone except OpenAI, who usually had a regular slot to chat to Tony Scott - and it was in their back yard!

I had a few things to say about the keynote at the time, including some snark about OpenAI being MIA, even before they announced the new and updated frontier models:

Putting it all together for The Stack:

Microsoft

Satya Nadella

AI

frontier models

OpenAI (or not)

Build

keynote