Microsoft AI says it’ll make superintelligent AI that won’t be terrible for humanity

Microsoft AI wants you to know that its work toward superintelligence involves keeping humans “at the top of the food chain.” In a lengthy blog post on Thursday, Microsoft AI head Mustafa Suleyman highlighted the formation of a new team dedicated to developing a “humanist superintelligence” that’s “designed only to serve humanity.”

This kind of superintelligence, according to Suleyman, won’t be “an unbounded and unlimited entity with high degrees of autonomy” and will instead be “carefully calibrated, contextualized, within limits.” Suleyman joined Microsoft last year as the CEO of Microsoft AI, which has only recently launched its first in-house models for text, voice, and image generation.

Though Suleyman’s blog post says Microsoft AI will “reject narratives about a race to AGI,” the competition between Microsoft and OpenAI is about to get much more intense. Under a new deal with OpenAI, Microsoft can now “independently pursue AGI alone or in partnership with third parties.” And, as pointed out by my colleague Hayden Field, “Microsoft is perfectly within its legal rights to use OpenAI’s IP to develop its own AGI and attempt to win the race.”

But Suleyman has a vision for “humanist” superintelligence with three main applications, which include serving as an AI companion that will help people “learn, act, be productive, and feel supported,” offering assistance in the healthcare industry, and creating “new scientific breakthroughs” in clean energy.

“At Microsoft AI, we believe humans matter more than AI,” Suleyman writes. “Humanist superintelligence keeps us humans at the centre of the picture. It’s AI that’s on humanity’s team, a subordinate, controllable AI, one that won’t, that can’t open a Pandora’s Box.”

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