Microsoft Hires AI2 Leadership for Suleyman's Superintelligence Team: Farhadi, Hajishirzi, Krishna Depart

GeekWire·medium signal

Microsoft hired former AI2 CEO Ali Farhadi along with researchers Hanna Hajishirzi, Ranjay Krishna, and former COO Sophie Lebrecht to join Mustafa Suleyman's Superintelligence division. All retain UW Allen School faculty positions. The move signals Microsoft building frontier AI models independently of OpenAI. AI2 faces one of its largest talent losses as its funder shifts from annual grants to proposal-based funding favoring real-world applications over open-source foundation model research.