Microsoft is building a new AI language model, MAI-1, under the leadership of Mustafa Suleyman, a former co-founder of Google DeepMind.

The MAI-1 model aims to rival those from Google and OpenAI and might be showcased at the upcoming Build developer conference.

With approximately 500 billion parameters, MAI-1 will be significantly larger and more expensive than its predecessors.

Despite Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and integration of its technology, the company is preparing to venture into AI with its own distinct models.

Mustafa Suleyman, who joined Microsoft in March to head the consumer AI division, is steering MAI-1, which will not utilize technology from his past venture Inflection but may leverage its training data.

The release of a smaller, cost-effective AI model, Phi-3-mini, indicates Microsoft's strategy to cater to a broad range of clients while also committing to high-end AI innovation.