Peter Lee plans to join Mercedes Formula 1 as AI advisor

Lee's move comes after 16 years at Microsoft, where he shaped its science and research efforts, including work on diagnostics, precision medicine, and clinician tools. One project, InnerEye, sought to automate the outlining of tumors and healthy tissue for radiation-treatment planning. He also helped assess OpenAI's GPT-4 before its public release and identify its potential in medicine.

The departure is part of a wave of changes at Microsoft this year, as other executives including Ryan Roslansky, Frank X. Shaw, Phil Spencer, and Rajesh Jha have also announced exits or retirements. Lee's shift to Formula 1 follows a similar move by Dr. James Smith, who joined the Williams Formula 1 team in June after working at Google's DeepMind.

Lee acknowledged that Formula 1 and health care are very different industries, but said they share traits: both involve well-trained people collaborating with a deficit of information and making consequential rapid decisions. At Mercedes, he will focus on four main goals: using AI to tackle physics problems for the team's car, breaking down organizational and data silos, building financial and predictive data models, and advising on how the sport's regulators might govern AI use.