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A comment on Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by aub3bhat on Friday September 30, 2016 @02:05PM (#12614115)
Well its not 5000 new people I assume ~70% would be restructuring (E.g. as the article states from Bing and Cortana). Even then at 1500 new employees, its a huge undertaking and vote of confidence into importance of AI.
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Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by icebraining on Friday September 30, 2016 @03:16PM (#12614605)
Except for severance and hiring bonuses, what's the difference between restructuring someone's job, or firing them and hiring another person? In the end, you're still committing $1B/year to AI jobs.
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Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by TheGrassyKnoll on Friday September 30, 2016 @11:56PM (#12616445)
Sure, its a ton of money, but they've had $20+ billion/quarter in revenue the last four quarters.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MSFT/financials?p=MSFT

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Re:Microsoft forms new 5,000-person AI division by aub3bhat on Friday September 30, 2016 @03:32PM (#12614703)
Well a portion of $1B is already accounted for in the balance sheet and budget.
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