By Todd Bishop
Publication Date: 2026-05-15 14:07:00
The wave of departures from the Allen Institute for AI to Microsoft is bigger than previously known: A total of at least 10 former Ai2 staffers and researchers have joined the tech giant, including the core of the Seattle-based institute’s flagship OLMo open-source model effort.
In addition to the previously reported Microsoft hires — former Ai2 CEO Ali Farhadi, former COO Sophie Lebrecht, and research leaders Hanna Hajishirzi and Ranjay Krishna — former Ai2 researchers now at Microsoft include Luca Soldaini, Kyle Lo, Dirk Groeneveld, Pete Walsh, Matt Jordan, and Jake Poznanski.
They have joined the Superintelligence team led by Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, working on its core mission and AI model post-training, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed in response to GeekWire’s inquiry. Formed in November,…
