Following inquiries from the EU and Britain on whether Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT creator OpenAI resembles a merger, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defended the company’s decision on Tuesday.
Speaking off-stage at a Bloomberg-organized session at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos was Nadella.
“If we want competition in AI against some of the players who are completely already integrated, I think partnerships is one avenue of, in fact, having competition,” Nadella said.
“I’m sure the regulators will look at it and say, ‘is this a pro-competition partnership or not?’ And to me, I think it’s a no brainer.”
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI since 2019, and in late 2022, ChatGPT, the company’s chatbot, brought artificial intelligence to the forefront.
ChatGPT was able to pass legal and medical tests, write succinct essays and poems in a matter of seconds, demonstrating the mind-boggling developments in artificial intelligence.
However, popularity has brought increased scrutiny, and as a result, antitrust authorities in the UK and the EU are currently looking into the Microsoft-OpenAI relationship.
Nadella insisted AI’s recent rapid developments come after Microsoft’s risk-taking.
“If Microsoft had not taken the highly risky (decision) — and this is now all conventional wisdom — but when we made those investments, when we backed OpenAI, went all in on a particular form of computing that led to all of these breakthroughs, it would have not been what we had.
“And more importantly, the incumbents would have been the winners,” Nadella said.
OpenAI faced a tumultuous period late last year when its CEO Sam Altman was ousted then made a shock return, all while he maintained Nadella’s support.
Nadella said Microsoft now just wanted “stability in the partnership”.
He also seemed confident about limiting the risks of AI on elections as billions prepare to head to the polls this year, including in the United States, where Microsoft is based.
“It’s not like this is the first election where disinformation or misinformation, and election interference is going to be a real challenge that we all have to tackle,” he said. “We as a company have to do our best work.”
Nadella was set to speak later on Tuesday during an official WEF event.