Mustafa Suleiman, CEO and co-founder of Inflection AI, speaks at the Axios BFD event in New York City, USA on October 12, 2023.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman said the software giant has no intention of building an artificial intelligence service that offers “simulated erotica” and is distancing itself from long-time partner OpenAI.
“That’s not the service we provide,” Suleiman said Thursday at the Paley International Council Summit in Menlo Park, California. “Other companies will build it.”
Suleiman’s comments come a week after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company plans to allow verified adults to use ChatGPT for erotic purposes. OpenAI is “not the elected moral police of the world,” Altman said.
Microsoft has been a major investor and cloud partner in OpenAI for many years, and both companies have leveraged their respective strengths to build large-scale AI businesses. But the relationship has shown signs of strain recently, with OpenAI partnering with a Microsoft rival. google and oracleMicrosoft is increasing its focus on its AI services.
Microsoft announced a series of new features for its Copilot AI chatbot early Thursday. This includes an AI companion called Mico that can respond to users through call functionality and express itself by changing colors.
In August, Suleiman wrote an essay titled, “We must build AI for humans, not to be humans.” He argued that tech companies should not build “seemingly conscious” services that give the impression that humans could suffer, and wrote that conscious AI could create a new “axis of division” for humanity.
On Thursday, Suleiman said seemingly conscious AI developments are already occurring in services primarily focused on erotica. In addition to Altman’s comments, he also mentioned Elon Musk’s Grok, which launched its own companion feature in July that included female animated characters.
“We’re already seeing it in some of these avatars and people leaning towards sexbot erotica,” Suleiman said. “This is very dangerous and I think we should make a conscious decision to avoid something like that.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but xAI responded, “Legacy media lies.”
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