Speaker 1: Microsoft CEO Sacha and Adela who joins us now live Satcha. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it's been a very fast moving and dramatic last seventy
Speaker 1: two to forty eight hours, And I want to start
Speaker 1: with the state of play. Where are we now? Open
Speaker 1: ai says it's hired a new CEO. We're reporting their
Speaker 1: efforts to get Sam Altman back. Tell us where things stand?
Speaker 2: Well, first, for all, Havan, it's great to be with you.
Speaker 2: You know, on Friday morning, we were very excited, committed
Speaker 2: and confident in our innovation roadmap to bring this next
Speaker 2: generation of AI to our customers. And we feel fantastic
Speaker 2: and capable of doing that. And we were partnered with
Speaker 2: open ai, and we were partnered with Sam. And that's
Speaker 2: exactly where I am on Monday afternoon, if you will,
Speaker 2: because we think that we can, you know, we are
Speaker 2: leading in this next generation of AI technology. We continue
Speaker 2: to be committed to open Ai, and we continue to
Speaker 2: be committed to Sam and Greg and the team in
Speaker 2: respect you where they are. And you know, I think
Speaker 2: about Sam has chosen multiple times now to work with us,
Speaker 2: and that's fantastic to see. And I think the real
Speaker 2: thing is that the capability that Microsoft has across the
Speaker 2: tech stack is what attracts great people like Sam, you know,
Speaker 2: and people like Sam and you know, innovators like Sam
Speaker 2: when it comes to ai to come to us, and
Speaker 2: we are thrilled about it.
Speaker 1: You incredibly quickly hired Sam as well as Greg. We
Speaker 1: are hearing that Sam wants to return. Investors want him
Speaker 1: to return to open Ai. How would you feel about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, as I said, we really want to partner with
Speaker 2: open Ai and we want to partner with Sam. And
Speaker 2: so in respect you where Sam is, He's working with
Speaker 2: Microsoft and that is the case on Friday, and that'll
Speaker 2: be that's the case today and we will I absolutely
Speaker 2: believe that will be the case tomorrow.
Speaker 1: So what are the conversations you've had with open AI's
Speaker 1: current board from their perspective, where do things stand? And
Speaker 1: have you talked with Emmett sheher the new interim CEO.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've had conversations with Emmett, and again it's the
Speaker 2: same thing. There's no real difference there from where we
Speaker 2: were when we were working with Mira and she was
Speaker 2: interim CEO when Sam was CEO and Emmett. So my
Speaker 2: message to them, Emmett is very clear, which is, Hey, look,
Speaker 2: we remain very very committed to open ai and it's
Speaker 2: mission and it's sort of roadmap, and they can count
Speaker 2: on us. And then, as I said, we also are
Speaker 2: very committed to Sam and Greg and team that want
Speaker 2: to join us. If they're not at open ai or
Speaker 2: anyone else who's at open ai wants to go somewhere else,
Speaker 2: we want them to come to Microsoft and continue to
Speaker 2: work here and win partnership with open ai.
Speaker 1: To your knowledge, why was Sam fired? And to your
Speaker 1: knowledge was he involved in any wrongdoing? Has the board
Speaker 1: given you a reason?
Speaker 2: As far as I'm concerned, You know, we were, as
Speaker 2: I said, we were very confident in Salm and his
Speaker 2: leadership team. I've not been told about anything you know
Speaker 2: they published internally at open ai that there is not
Speaker 2: that the board has not talked about anything that Sam
Speaker 2: did other than some breakdown in communications. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not directly and was told by anyone from their
Speaker 2: board about any issues. And so therefore I remain confident
Speaker 2: in Sam and his leadership and capability. And that's why
Speaker 2: you know, we want to welcome him to Microsoft.
Speaker 1: Now. We understand that to support a return of Sam
Speaker 1: mom and too open Ai. Microsoft wants some changes to
Speaker 1: the board, to governance to its overall contract with open ai,
Speaker 1: so something like this never happens. Again, what specifically are
Speaker 1: you looking for, for example, would you want to board
Speaker 1: see and if not, what else?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think we definitely will want some
Speaker 3: governance changes.
Speaker 2: So then you know, you know, surprises are bad and
Speaker 2: we just want to make sure that things are done
Speaker 2: in a way that will allow us.
Speaker 3: To continue to partner.
Speaker 2: Well that's about it, right, You know, this idea that somehow,
Speaker 2: you know, suddenly changes happen without being you know, in
Speaker 2: the loop is not good. And we will definitely ensure
Speaker 2: that some of the changes that are needed to happen
Speaker 2: and we continue to be able to go along on
Speaker 2: the partnership with open Ai.
Speaker 1: So how are you envisioning this role with the sort
Speaker 1: of you know, advanced AI team that Sam and Greg
Speaker 1: would be joining and leading. Can you explain that? And
Speaker 1: are they actually Microsoft.
Speaker 3: Employees right now?
Speaker 1: Like who do they work for?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So they're all in the process of joining, and yes,
Speaker 2: I mean the thing is, you know, we have a
Speaker 2: ton of AI expertise in this company. You know, in fact,
Speaker 2: at our IGNITE conference last week. We talked about all
Speaker 2: of the great work open aiyes doing and on Azure
Speaker 2: and all the models and tools that we built around it.
Speaker 2: And we also talked about all the open source models
Speaker 2: that are on Azure from you know, Llama and miss
Speaker 2: Stral and Jazz and everything in and then also you know,
Speaker 2: in fact, not only are we leaders in LLLMS in
Speaker 2: partnership with open Ai, but we're also leaders in SLMs
Speaker 2: or the small language models with five and we talked
Speaker 2: about that, which is all developed by Microsoft Research. So
Speaker 2: what we am excited about is sort of creating another
Speaker 2: team that's really going to have high ambition on leading
Speaker 2: edge advanced day I work that Sam and Greg are
Speaker 2: excited about. This is something that you know, we've talked
Speaker 2: a lot about with them. You know, what happens in
Speaker 2: twenty five, what happens in thirty What do we do
Speaker 2: to advance both the system side the science side.
Speaker 3: And that's the thing that we will be pushing on. Now.
Speaker 1: Many folks I'm speaking with don't see Sam as a
Speaker 1: sort of big tech company guy. He has all of
Speaker 1: these side product projects that you know we've already heard about.
Speaker 1: We've reported on new projects. Would he be able to
Speaker 1: pursue these side projects while being employed by Microsoft?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure you know, Like you know, Sam has
Speaker 2: got broad interests in broad investments and so on, and
Speaker 2: we'll definitely, you know, work through the governance aspects of it.
Speaker 2: But most importantly, I think you would want to only
Speaker 2: work at Microsoft if he wants to spend his full
Speaker 2: time time on really pursuing the mission, just like how
Speaker 2: he were spending his time on Open AI. And so
Speaker 2: that's kind of the idea behind having him lead this
Speaker 2: advanced research team around AI with Greg and others, And
Speaker 2: you know, that's an exciting thing for us to look
Speaker 2: forward to.
Speaker 1: I'm curious just your reaction to you know, the last
Speaker 1: three days of events. Are you now more concerned than
Speaker 1: ever about AI safety? Given we've seen clearly how fragile
Speaker 1: these institutions are.
Speaker 3: It's a great point.
Speaker 2: I mean, the thing that I think, in some sense,
Speaker 2: I've always felt that we should think about the unintended
Speaker 2: consequences of any great advances in technology from day one,
Speaker 2: versus dealing with them later. So in some sense I
Speaker 2: welcome this dialogue, if you will, of safe and safety first,
Speaker 2: even in technology and technological development, right. I mean that's
Speaker 2: I think in some sense it should be celebrated that
Speaker 2: we as a tech industry have gotten to a place
Speaker 2: where we don't think of this as a trade off,
Speaker 2: but we think about this as two considerations that are
Speaker 2: both first class. Right. One is how do we build
Speaker 2: technology so that everybody in the world can have a
Speaker 2: doctor an X that they can reach, or a tutor
Speaker 2: or you know, a rural farmer in India has more
Speaker 2: agency because of technology that was developed in the West
Speaker 2: Coast of the United States a few months earlier. These
Speaker 2: are unbelievable things that democratize access on one side, but
Speaker 2: on the other side, being grounded on the here and
Speaker 2: now harms right, whether it's election interference or deep fakes
Speaker 2: or bias or bioterrorism and having the guardrails against it
Speaker 2: or even the some of the you know AI take
Speaker 2: off existential risks and the alignment research that is required.
Speaker 2: So I think that there is a real robust dialogue
Speaker 2: that's happening, which is and real work. Like when I
Speaker 2: think about Microsoft, we have done, in fact, some of
Speaker 2: the biggest most work around AI alignment, AI safety guardrail.
Speaker 2: So for example, even the open source models we launched
Speaker 2: last week, all have benefit from all the godrail work
Speaker 2: we did around open ai models.
Speaker 1: So throughout the reporting process, we've heard, you know, concerns
Speaker 1: about potential regulatory issues and of course the power that
Speaker 1: Microsoft already has, the power that Microsoft has in Ai.
Speaker 1: Have you, on your end work through all the potential
Speaker 1: legal issues at play here? I mean I just spoke
Speaker 1: to one investor who said, you know, they're considering suing
Speaker 1: open Ai, Like, you know, there's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that have yet it seems to be figured out. And
Speaker 1: do you know what Microsoft's legal liability is and open
Speaker 1: AI's legal liability is given your significant investment there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I'm I'm most focused on and most excited
Speaker 2: about our.
Speaker 3: Ability to continue to innovate Emily.
Speaker 2: I mean, I led the lawyers sort of figured out
Speaker 2: what liabilities are. But I think we have all the capability,
Speaker 2: all the IP and all the things that we need
Speaker 2: in order to continue to essentially control our destiny here
Speaker 2: so that we can continue to innovate on behalf of
Speaker 2: our customers. That's what matters, That's what makes Microsoft Microsoft,
Speaker 2: and will continue to do what we need to do.
Speaker 1: Okay, so quick, last question, this is today who's going
Speaker 1: to be CEO of open Ai tomorrow? You tell me.
Speaker 3: I will leave it to open Ai and it's bored.
Speaker 1: All right. Sach and Adella, CEO of Microsoft.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I know you've had a really busy few days. Appreciate
Speaker 1: you taking the time to talk to us.