Microsoft has reportedly laid off an entire team focused on guiding AI innovation

According to a report by Platformer, Microsoft has laid off an entire team dedicated to guiding AI innovation, as part of a recent round of layoffs affecting around 10,000 employees. The team’s goal was originally to ensure that AI development was more sustainable, responsible, and ethically sound.

Following the dismissal of this ethics team, Microsoft now has only an Office of Responsible AI remaining, which is responsible for developing rules and standards for AI applications and features integrated into its products. However, some employees in this department have indicated that in the past, it was usually the dedicated ethics team that ensured that the rules they established were reflected in Microsoft’s actual product applications, essentially acting as a gatekeeper.

The ethics team underwent a restructuring last October, leaving only seven members after the reorganization, with most of the other employees being reassigned to other positions. A few months ago, Microsoft’s VP of AI, John Montgomery, informed the remaining seven employees that they would eventually be laid off. Some employees within the team believe that they were being laid off because Microsoft wants to focus on introducing AI-related products before its competitors, with a lesser emphasis on long-term societal impacts.

Microsoft is currently partnering with OpenAI and has invested billions of dollars in it. Microsoft is also preparing to offer a “next-generation large language AI that is more powerful than ChatGPT and designed specifically for search” for its Bing search engine and Edge browser. As we reported earlier, Microsoft will soon be releasing its new GPT-4 model. At this point, laying off the entire ethics team raises questions about whether Microsoft’s considerations for AI application guidelines and product design are adequately thought through.