Latest news with #AdamSadovsky
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
No nine-figure deals, just more breathing room, 'startup vibe': Why engineers are leaving Google's DeepMind for Microsoft
'Startup vibe' over hierarchy Live Events From DeepMind to Copilot Adam Sadovsky, a former senior director at DeepMind with 18 years at Google, now also a Corporate VP at Microsoft AI Sonal Gupta, an engineering lead at DeepMind until June, now listed as technical staff at Microsoft Jonas Rothfuss, who spent a year as an AI research scientist at DeepMind before joining Suleyman's team in May How Microsoft's offer stacks up Why DeepMind employees are leaving Google Responds The AI talent race is getting personal Meta, OpenAI, and the new AI arms race (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Over the last several months, Microsoft has quietly hired at least 24 engineers and researchers from Google 's DeepMind . Many of these professionals are joining the AI team led by Mustafa Suleyman, one of DeepMind's original recruitment push isn't just about pay. Microsoft is selling a different kind of pitch, freedom, speed, and to The Wall Street Journal , Suleyman has been personally involved in calling up former colleagues and DeepMind engineers to offer something they say Google no longer provides: a leaner, more agile work team, now operating mostly out of Mountain View, California, has been described as a self-contained hub of innovation. It also has a London presence. Unlike Microsoft's usual headquarters in Redmond, this team functions with considerable the heart of Suleyman's offer is the idea of a 'startup vibe', fewer layers, smaller teams, faster decision-making. That approach has clearly struck a a LinkedIn post last month, Amar Subramanya, who worked at Google for 16 years and was VP of Engineering on the Gemini AI project, said, 'The culture here is refreshingly low ego yet bursting with ambition. It reminds me of the best parts of a startup, fast-moving, collaborative, and deeply focused on building truly innovative, state-of-the-art foundation models to drive delightful AI-powered products such as Microsoft Copilot .'Subramanya has now joined Microsoft AI as a Corporate Vice recruits are working on Microsoft's Copilot, a consumer-facing AI assistant positioned against ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. While enterprise versions of Copilot are embedded within Microsoft 365 and GitHub , Suleyman's unit is focused on building a version tailored for everyday to the WSJ report, Microsoft recently rolled out updates to Copilot's integration with its Edge browser, letting users compare hotel options or summarise content from open key hires include:Microsoft's offers, according to sources cited by the WSJ, have been "heftier" than what DeepMind typically pays especially for senior staff. But they don't come close to the jaw-dropping nine-figure deals being offered by the parent company of Facebook, is aggressively poaching talent from across the AI industry. It has offered some researchers up to $300 million to jump ship. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently claimed Meta was offering signing bonuses of $100 million to lure his now has around 6,000 employees and has become an integral part of Google's AI strategy. But with that scale has come bureaucracy, according to some former Bock, a former senior HR executive at Google, told WSJ, 'It feels much more like a company run by a finance person than an engineer.'He added that Google now resembles a 20-year-old version of Microsoft, profitable, but slow-moving and shift in perception seems to be fuelling some of the has responded by downplaying the exits. It told WSJ, 'We are excited that we are able to attract the world's leading AI talent, including researchers and engineers who come from rival labs.'It also said its attrition rates remain below industry averages. And in parallel, Google has been making high-profile hires of its own, including the CEO and team behind Windsurf , an AI coding startup it acquired in a $2.4 billion direct role in recruitment adds a personal touch to Microsoft's AI strategy. After leaving DeepMind, he founded a startup called Inflection, and later joined Microsoft in 2023. Several of his former colleagues from Inflection have followed him into his new talent war isn't just about competing products. It's about who can build the right kind of environment to unlock breakthroughs in artificial this is a reversal of roles from the early 2000s. Back then, Google was the young, hungry company that lured engineers from Microsoft with promises of speed and impact. Today, Microsoft is playing that exact current wave of hiring also comes at an unusual time. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced 9,000 job cuts, about 4 percent of its global workforce. Yet, the company continues to spend heavily on its AI unit.A Microsoft spokesperson told WSJ, 'All of our senior leaders have equal ability to recruit talent and manage their teams in a way that works successfully for their business and their people alike.'And that's the strategy Suleyman seems to be running with bring in people who want to move fast, give them the space to build, and keep the politics Microsoft woos engineers with culture, Meta continues to dominate the cash-led arms race. Alongside big bonuses, Meta recently formed a new Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) lab led by Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO, and Alexandr Wang, co-founder of Scale AI . The lab is backed by a $14.3 billion has also hired from Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic, and DeepMind. Engineers, it seems, are now being treated like top athletes, with companies vying to outbid each other for their hiring spree signals a clear shift in how big tech is approaching the AI race. Talent is the new battleground but culture is the new currency. And as the industry moves into the next phase of AI development, where and how people choose to work might matter as much as the models they build.(To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow ET Trending .)
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
The 'promise' Microsoft is making to employees it is poaching from Google DeepMind, and it is not nine-figure salaries
Representative Image Microsoft is reportedly making a "promise" of a more lively, startup-like work environment to the employees it is poaching from Google DeepMind . A report citing people who have received the offers claimed that Microsoft's recent offers have been "heftier" than those at DeepMind, still they don't match the scale of nine-figure contracts offered by Meta. To compare, Facebook-parent Meta has reportedly provided some researchers with contracts worth $300 million. These recent offers from Microsoft didn't exceed what the social media giant offereed but they were higher than the typical pay at DeepMind, particularly for long-time employees. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Suleyman, who is also a co-founder of Google's DeepMind, is reportedly recruiting these talents personally and has been pitching recruits on the idea that the new AI division at Microsoft is a more flexible workplace than what DeepMind has become under Google's ownership. Suleyman has promised recruits more freedom and smaller teams, a 'startup vibe' that has reportedly appealed to several targets. Microsoft has already hired at least two dozen executives and other employees from Google in recent months, most of whom came from DeepMind. This includes prominent figures like Adam Sadovsky, a former distinguished engineer, and Amar Subramanya, a former VP of engineering at Google. Microsoft's latest strategy seems to be an effort to close the gap in the AI race. What Microsoft's new hires from Google DeepMind said about their former company by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Living comfortably: 60 m² prefabricated house for the elderly (See more) Prefabricated Homes View Deals Undo 'The culture here is refreshingly low ego yet bursting with ambition,' one of the recruits from Deepmind, Subramanya, wrote in a post shared on social networking site LinkedIn last month while announcing his new role at Microsoft. As per the report, Suleyman has been given autonomy by CEO Satya Nadella to lead Microsoft's AI efforts and attract top talent with competitive offers. His team operates mainly from Mountain View, California, with a presence in London, and functions independently from Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The report also noted that a Microsoft spokesman has claimed that all of its senior leaders 'have equal ability to recruit talent and manage their teams in a way that works successfully for their business and their people alike.' The new Google hires will focus on consumer-facing products like Microsoft's Copilot chatbot, which competes with ChatGPT and Gemini, the report adds. Led by Suleyman, the consumer version of Copilot is separate from the enterprise versions used in Microsoft 365 and GitHub. Recently, Microsoft even announced deeper Copilot integration with the Edge browser to assist with tasks like comparing hotel options using open tabs. On the other hand, DeepMind expanded to around 6,000 employees as it became a key part of Google's AI efforts. Some recruits said that they prefer working at Microsoft compared to their previous company due to its less bureaucratic structure. Former Google executive Laszlo Bock noted that Google now resembles a 20-year-earlier version of Microsoft, profitable but often slow-moving, hierarchical and political. 'It feels much more like a company run by a finance person than an engineer,' he said. To counter this, Google has reportedly said that its attrition rates are below the industry average and noted that it has also hired several employees from Microsoft. 'We are excited that we are able to attract the world's leading AI talent, including researchers and engineers who come from rival labs,' a Google spokesperson said to WSJ.. Realme Buds T200 Review: Vibrant Sound, Sleek Design AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
