Microsoft AI Chief Mustafa Suleyman Says It’s ‘Absurd’ to Research AI Consciousness: ‘They Can't Feel Pain’
Mustafa Suleyman says AI only simulates consciousness and lacks true experience, stressing AI should serve humans and avoid controversial uses like erotica chatbots.
- On April 4, 2025, Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, said only biological beings are capable of consciousness and urged developers to stop such projects, saying `I don't think that is work that people should be doing`.
- Suleyman argued consciousness relies on biological naturalism, noting AI lacks the pain network to truly suffer, as he said, `The reason we give people rights today is because we don't want to harm them, because they suffer.'
- Microsoft will not build chatbots for erotica, Suleyman said, framing Microsoft AIs as tools that `are always working in service of the human`, unlike rival firms offering AI companions.
- The expanding AI companion market, including last week's Copilot Mico features, intensifies tensions as OpenAI partners with rivals and Microsoft shifts focus to its own AI services.
- After joining Microsoft in 2024 via a $650 million deal, Suleyman is on a speaking tour warning of AI consciousness risks as Microsoft spent about 18 months building in-house model training.
13 Articles
13 Articles
Microsoft AI chief says only humans can feel, calls AI consciousness a wrong question to ask
Mustafa Suleyman, the head of Microsoft AI, has publicly challenged the idea that artificial intelligence can be conscious, arguing that only humans and other biological beings are capable of genuine emotion or experience.
Microsoft AI Chief: True Consciousness Exclusive to Biological Beings
In a bold stance that challenges the speculative fervor surrounding artificial intelligence, Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman has declared that only biological beings can achieve true consciousness, dismissing efforts to imbue machines with apparent sentience as misguided and potentially harmful. Suleyman, who oversees Microsoft’s ambitious AI initiatives, argues that AI systems, no matter how advanced, cannot experience genuine emotions or s…
As the technology industry gets excited for artificial intelligences capable of simulating emotions, Microsoft AI's boss, Mustafa Suleyman, pulls the emergency brake and lays a clear philosophical limit.
Microsoft's AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman is the generation that only biological beings can have a consciousness. Developers and researchers from the field of artificial intelligence should therefore not pursue projects that claim that one can create an AI with consciousness. (Read more)
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