Microsoft reaffirms its commitment to Barcelona. The American software multinational launched at the end of 2021 in the Catalan capital an artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning research and development (R&D) hub that started with about thirty professionals and that currently already has 80 workers, all of them highly qualified profiles specialized in software engineering, data science, and machine learning. Now, this center plans to hire another hundred people, as announced this Monday by the multinational's president in Spain, Alberto Granados, in a speech at Nueva Economía Fórum.
According to the executive, the objective is to turn the office in the Catalan capital into a European hub that will allow progress in the development of new disruptive technologies based on artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT. This free chatbot developed by the company OpenAI ---which has the support and funding from Microsoft--- has recently revolutionized sectors such as education, as it is capable of answering questions very broadly and coherently, even passing final MBA exams from prestigious business schools like Wharton. From the Barcelona center, Microsoft professionals are already working on the new GPT-4 version, which will increase to a trillion the parameters the chatbot takes into account to formulate responses.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced a "multi-billion dollar" investment in OpenAi and anticipated that Azure ---its cloud computing service--- will become OpenAI's exclusive provider. With this investment, both companies stated, they intend to "democratize" access to artificial intelligence. Some analyst reports, such as Morgan Stanley, already see ChatGPT as "a threat" to the leading search engine par excellence, Google.
Microsoft's hub in Barcelona is one of the eight research centers that the multinational has worldwide in its WebXT (Web Experiences Team) division, dedicated to improving the user experience when using the Bing search engine, the Edge browser, the Windows operating system, Office programs, or Microsoft Azure. This unit employs 5,000 people internationally.
The announcement of an increase in the workforce in the Catalan capital coincides with Microsoft's decision to lay off 10,000 people worldwide, around 5% of the total workforce. Alberto Granados assured that a 5% "adjustment" "is not significant" given that the multinational has grown 50% in personnel in the last three years. According to the executive, the layoffs are due to the multinational "reprioritizing certain areas," especially those where there are "strategic projects." After all, he assured that the current economic context is "one of the most complex in recent decades." "No one is immune to the current situation," he defended.
For his part, the Minister of Business and Labor of the Generalitat, Roger Torrent, celebrated that Microsoft "redoubles" its commitment to the artificial intelligence center in Barcelona. "The fundamental decisions, the most strategic ones, are moving forward," said Torrent. "Catalunya is very well positioned. We want to consolidate ourselves as the main technological hub of Southern Europe and news like Microsoft's certify that we are on the right track in this regard," he added, reports ACN.