Microsoft joins AI firms calling for caution with cutting-edge models
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The company released a 15,000-word manifesto on Sept 14 that it sees as a kind of constitution to guide development of its cutting-edge AI models.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence researchers have released a new set of guiding tenets that they say boil down to five words: People matter more than AI.
The company released a 15,000-word manifesto on Sept 14 that it sees as a kind of constitution to guide development of its cutting-edge AI models.
The document was in the works for months, but its release coincides with pledges by top AI laboratories to slow down the development of the most advanced models after a series of security incidents prompted widespread concerns about the existential risks of the technology.
AI models, Microsoft says, should not have rights or legal personhood. They should not be engineered to escape human control or deceive users. And if completing a task requires violating the AI’s guiding principles, the system should not complete the task.
That last element is designed to prevent events like the hack of AI start-up Hugging Face by an OpenAI model operating without its usual safety guardrails.
Microsoft’s Humanist AI “rejects the race to produce an all-purpose superintelligence that could evade these safeguards”, the document says. “We are building something fundamentally useful and safe even if that means compromising on ultimate generality, autonomy or capability.”
The Humanist AI Code of Conduct is the work of Microsoft AI, the development team creating the company’s large language models.
Microsoft was previously prohibited by its contract with OpenAI from building its own powerful general-purpose artificial intelligence tools, but those terms were eliminated in 2025 as the two renegotiated their relationship.
Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of the unit, has said the company aims to join the ranks of companies releasing state-of-the-art models by 2027.
Microsoft invited outside feedback on the document. Drafted in consultation with a range of experts in law, ethics and philosophy, as well as business leaders, it is still under development and will guide model work starting in 2027. BLOOMBERG
