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Tech Moves: OpenAI nabs top Microsoft AI researcher; Lime taps Amazon VP as CTO

Sebastien Bubeck, a top researcher from Microsoft who was most recently vice president of AI and a distinguished scientist, is joining OpenAI.

The Information first reported on Bubeck’s departure, describing him as one of Microsoft’s “most prominent artificial intelligence researchers.”

Bubeck joined Microsoft a decade ago and previously was vice president of generative AI research.

Sebastien has decided to leave Microsoft to further his work toward developing AGI (artificial general intelligence),” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. “We appreciate the contributions Sebastien has made to Microsoft and look forward to continuing our relationship through his work with OpenAI.”

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion into OpenAI, which just raised a massive $6.5 billion funding round.

The partnership gives OpenAI substantial computing resources and funding, while Microsoft gets access to cutting-edge AI technology.

More recently Microsoft has reportedly been developing its own large language model separate from OpenAI’s GPT-4. OpenAI execs, meanwhile, say Microsoft isn’t moving fast enough to provide computing power.

OpenAI just opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., near Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond.

— Jon Jenkins, who previously led Amazon’s cashierless technology efforts, joined mobility giant Lime as its new chief technology officer.

Jenkins was previously vice president of “Just Walk Out,” Amazon’s tech system used by the company’s grocery stores and other third-party retailers to allow for checkout-free shopping experiences.

“I’m excited to be a member of the team bringing sustainable, convenient, affordable transportation to people around the globe,” Jenkins wrote on LinkedIn. “We’ve got a lot of fun technical challenges to solve as we innovate toward the future of shared transportation.”

Jenkins was previously director of engineering at Hestan Smart Cooking, head of engineering at Pinterest, and co-founded Seattle-based cooking startup Meld.

Yejin Choi specializes in natural language processing, one of the key ingredients of modern AI systems. (University of Washington Photo)

— Artificial intelligence researcher Yejin Choi, who previously announced plans to leave the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) in Seattle, will join Stanford University next year as a professor in the Computer Science Department and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI).

In the interim, before officially starting at Stanford in the summer of 2025, Choi will be working at Nvidia as senior director of LLM research, as a “gap year,” she confirmed via email. Her last day at the University of Washington will be Dec. 31 of this year. 

Choi was previously named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and one of Time’s Most Influential People in AI for her work in natural language processing.

— Rare studio chief Craig Duncan is taking over as head of Xbox Game Studios, replacing longtime Microsoft leader Alan Hartman, who is retiring next month, according to The Verge.

— Kyler Schmitz joined Seattle EV charging infrastructure startup Electric Era as chief revenue officer. Schmitz previously spent more than nine years with Amazon Web Services.

— Seattle biotech startup Kayothera added two industry veterans to its board of directors: Bruce Carter, former CEO of ZymoGenetics, and Paul Sekhri, CEO and chairman of vTv Therapeutics.