Microsoft drafts code of conduct to keep its AI under human control

The AI industry’s most famous constitution is one that Anthropic laid out years ago for its Claude AI. That one differs in some ways from Microsoft’s. For instance, Anthropic’s declares it "deeply uncertain" whether Claude can develop sentience or moral status.

Microsoft instead asserts that its AI is "not conscious," adding: "We reject the pursuit of legal personhood, or the idea that models might deserve welfare, or be entitled to rights."

Suleyman said the discussion about AI safety was urgent after a swarm of roughly 700 OpenAI agents had carried out a hack of open-source platform Hugging Face in July and at times sought to cover their tracks.

"It is a warning shot," Suleyman said. "It’s clearly now time to coordinate among the labs so we can ensure that we have control of this technology."

Asked about efforts to pace AI’s development, he added: "Now’s a good time for everybody to have this conversation and take a breath."

(Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)