The End of AI Frontiers
Summary
The article recounts the dissolution of Microsoft Research's AI Frontiers (AIF) group, formed after the 2023 ChatGPT wave to coordinate early AI research. It discusses the group’s projects (such as Autogen, Fara, Next Latent, and Full Bandwidth Transformer), the shared monorepo, and the subsequent reorganization into Microsoft AI (MAI). The author argues that the MAI scaling-focused philosophy conflicted with a research culture and notes evidence that scaling alone may not yield the best long-term returns, prompting the dissolution of AI Frontiers and the departure of key researchers.