Microsoft Research's AI Frontiers team ends, John Langford departs

The end of Microsoft Research's AI Frontiers group

John Langford announced that Microsoft Research's AI Frontiers team is ending and that he has left after placing team members. The roughly 50-person team was folded into Microsoft AI in early September. He blamed the departure on a new management line that favors scaling over research and struggles to move innovation into real use. Other founding leaders seem to have reached similar conclusions, and the team will offer no internships next year.

Why it matters: Langford ties his exit to a clash over research direction after the reorg, giving the organizational background to AI Frontiers' end.