Microsoft's VP of GenAI research Sebastien Bubeck is joining OpenAI

Microsoft on Monday said that its vice president of GenAI research, Sebastien Bubeck, is leaving company to join ChatGPT-maker OpenAI.

It was unclear what role Bubeck would assume at Microsoft-backed AI startup.

"Sebastian has decided to leave Microsoft to furr his work toward developing AGI," a spokesperson for Microsoft said, ding that company looks forward to continuing ir relationship through Bubeck's work with OpenAI.

Bubeck did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for confirmation.

Most of Bubeck's coauthors who worked on a research paper on Microsoft's Phi LLMs, which are smaller than tritional large language models (LLMs), remain at Microsoft and plan to continue developing models, according to Information, which first reported his departure.

development follows a series of departures from OpenAI, including that of longtime chief technology officer Mira Murati in September.

CEO Sam Altman has denied any link between departures and a planned restructuring of company.