Tech giants forge tie-ups to speed up AI deployment

MICROSOFT, GOOGLE, APPLE NOT MOVING FAST ENOUGH TO FIELD CONSUMER PRODUCTS

- DINA BASS & JACKIE DAVALOS

EARLIER THIS WEEK, Microsoft named artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer Mustafa Suleyman chief of its consumer AI business and hired most of the staff from his Inflection AI startup. A day before, Bloomberg reported that Alphabet's Google was in talks to licence its Gemini AI engine to Apple.

The moves suggest that despite pouring billions of dollars into partnerships, investments and product development, Microsoft and Google are struggling to figure out how to capitalise on generative AI. Neither company is moving fast enough to field consumer products that generate revenue and grab market share, and, despite their size and power, they remain vulnerable to being disrupted. Even as engineers labour to perfect the large language models undergirding the technology, the companies are forming alliances and scouring the world for talent and promising startups.