A key executive has left Microsoft years ahead of the next-gen Project Helix console, opting for a similar role at an AI company instead.
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Jared Palmer, the engineering VP that was directly appointed by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, is now leaving Microsoft. “Personal update: I’ve joined Cognition to lead engineering. I’m grateful to Asha Sharma and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year,” Palmer announced on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Both Sharma and Palmer previously worked together in a similar arrangement at another Microsoft division, CoreAI, with Sharma serving as president and Palmer as VP. At Xbox, Palmer was involved with “removing friction and increasing productivity,” and according to a memo from Sharma, Palmer was also working directly with her on Xbox’s “most complex product and engineering problems.”
Microsoft is currently building out its toolset for its next-generation Xbox console, codenamed Project Helix. This device will be a complex system with AI directly embedded into it on a chip level, and likely requires new enhanced tools (like the DirectX optimizations) in order to fully utilize the power of the hardware. Disruptions in the process of AI-related or -adjacent engineering could affect the rate at which new games and tools are made for Helix.
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Who is Jared Palmer and what role did he hold at Xbox before leaving Microsoft?
Jared Palmer is a former Xbox engineering vice president who was directly appointed by new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Before leaving Microsoft, he served as engineering VP at Xbox, working on removing friction, increasing productivity, and working directly with Sharma on the division’s most complex product and engineering problems.
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Meanwhile, AI is thoroughly dead at Xbox on a consumer-facing level. Yet Microsoft has yet to discuss further plans for its use of AI in games–could they be working with OpenAI on some sort of real-time AI chatbot that can generate in-game assets, similar to EA’s experimental tech? Or what about Microsoft’s MUSE AI generator, or its partnership with gen AI company InWorld?
