Microsoft invests $1 billion in OpenAI artificial general intelligence moonshot

Microsoft announced plans to invest $1 billion in an artificial general intelligence platform with OpenAI. The multiyear partnership calls for Microsoft to be OpenAI's preferred commercialization partner as the two organizations build up new supercomputing capacity.

The announcement placed emphasis on both hardware and software elements and a combination of "ethics and trust." Microsoft described the last ten years as a time of significant expansion in computing and deep neural network capabilities, with incredible results for language processing, vision, robotics, gaming and translation. But it indicated that more advanced technology is needed for healthcare, education and climate change-related "multidisciplinary" scenarios.