Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has a new 'Harvard plan' and the target is OpenAI

Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, has made healthcare a focus of his division's efforts as he increases staffing at an internal AI lab that competes with OpenAI, a report has said, adding that this is a part of Microsoft’s working to become an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot powerhouse in its own right rather than leaning on its partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

The report adds that in an effort to gain ground on its more advanced rivals, the company has seized on healthcare as a sector where it believes it can deliver a better offering than any of the other major players and build the brand of its Copilot assistant.

Microsoft’s Harvard Medical School partnership

Citing people familiar with the matter, a report by The Wall Street Journal said that a major update of Copilot scheduled for release as soon as this month will be the first to reflect a new collaboration between Microsoft and Harvard Medical School.The new version of Copilot will draw on information from the Harvard Health Publishing arm to respond to queries about healthcare topics. Microsoft will pay Harvard a licensing fee, one of the people was quoted as saying.In an interview, Dominic King, vice president of health at Microsoft AI, declined to discuss the arrangement with Harvard but said the company's aim is for Copilot to serve answers that are more in line with the information users might get from a medical practitioner than what is currently available.

"Making sure that people have access to credible, trustworthy health information that is tailored to their language and their literacy and all kinds of things is essential. Part of that is making sure that we're sourcing that material from the right places,” King said.King said the focus will be on complex conditions and the company’s intent is to help users make informed decisions about managing complex conditions such as diabetes.Another tool in development would allow Copilot to help users find healthcare providers near where they live based on their healthcare needs and insurance coverage.