Microsoft’s recruitment of particular former workers from AI startup Inflection has been forwarded for an initial merger examination in the U.K.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of Britain disclosed on Tuesday that the recruitment of Mustafa Suleyman, co-creator of Inflection, and most of the startup’s personnel, needs assessment to determine if it qualifies as a merger under U.K. regulations and might consequently lead to reduced competition in the AI industry.

If a need arises for further exploration, the CMA can transfer the case for an in-depth examination, referred to as a “Phase 2” scrutiny. The CMA noted that a verdict on whether to forward the case for a Phase 2 investigation would be made by Sept. 11.

In March, Microsoft declared the recruitment of Suleyman from Inflection, alongside several other essential staff members from the company.

Suleyman was appointed as Microsoft’s executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI, a freshly established department of the enterprise concentrating on its AI offerings, such as Copilot, the corporation’s AI aide that got incorporated into its Windows and Microsoft 365 software.

In extension to Suleyman’s elevated executive position, the Seattle-based technology heavyweight chose Karen Simonyan to join the organization as its head scientist, reporting to Suleyman.

Both Suleyman and Simonyan were past workers of DeepMind, the AI research facility owned by Google.

This is a recent news statement. Kindly refresh for additional details.