Mustafa Suleyman says he believes the AI giant is in effect teaching Claude it "may be conscious".
Watch: Tech firms are "essentially seeding a new silicon species" says Microsoft's head of AI Mustafa Suleyman
Microsoft's head of AI has described rival tech firm's approach of treating like it's human as "misguided" as he warned against creating a technology humanity cannot control.
Speaking to the BBC, Mustafa Suleyman said it is "right" that people are concerned or alarmed, but there are "very practical things that we can do to add additional guardrails and controls to how these models are developed".
But he warned tech companies and world leaders must be "aligned" moving forward if they are to create a safe and "controllable" version of AI for the future.
The comments are the latest in a series of stark warnings from the AI industry on the possible dangers of the technology.
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Speaking to the Today programme on Thursday, he said if firms continue to create AIs that create their own objectives, earn money and own assets, they are "essentially seeding a new silicon species which will no doubt compete with us for resources, no matter how much it cares about humanity and loves us".
The AI leader's appearance on BBC's Today programme follows an essay Suleyman published earlier this week, where he warned of Anthropic's approach to training its AI model Claude specifically.
In the essay, he warned tech firms risk creating something "impossible" control by treating the technology like a human.
"AIs are not conscious," he wrote. "They do not feel, experience, or suffer. They do not have innate preferences or underlying motivations.
"They are sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans."
In a lengthy essay, Suleyman praised Anthropic boss Dario Amodei and his team for being "thoughtful, principled, and intellectually honest people" - but nevertheless questioned the company.
He heavily criticised Anthropic for teaching its AI to have human-like qualities, a practice known as anthropomorphising, which he said made it seem as though Claude had its own desires, values and sense of self. The BBC has contacted Anthropic for comment.
In the essay, Suleyman also argued "consciousness is biological", saying there is "no evidence to suggest that AI is conscious".
Reporting synthesized and verified under Nexvoro.tech editorial guidelines. Full primary records referenced via BBC Business.
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