AI must benefit humanity, stay under human control: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella said superintelligence should be pursued only if it benefits humanity and stays under human control. He called for wider AI access, enterprise control over knowledge, and safeguards beyond a handful of players.

In Short

• Nadella urged faster sharing of AI gains across countries, communities and companies
• He said open and closed models should both thrive together
• Organisations should keep control of tacit knowledge, not rely on one provider

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has said any pursuit of superintelligence must be grounded in the principle that AI should benefit humanity and remain under human control.

In a post on X, Nadella said that if the AI being developed does not help humanity or cannot be kept under human control, it is “not worth pursuing”. He also called for accelerating the spread of AI benefits across countries, communities and companies.

BROAD ACCESS TO AI

Nadella said the AI ecosystem should allow both closed and open-source models to thrive. He argued that organisations should retain full control over their unique and tacit knowledge rather than becoming dependent on a single AI model provider.

“Every organisation should be able to build its own continuous learning loop/hill climbing machine,” Nadella said, adding that companies should also be able to embed their own knowledge into models and weights that they control.

He said Microsoft supports the research, focus and “deliberate pacing” needed to get AI alignment right as a design goal. Nadella also welcomed ideas such as “embedded evaluators” and broader efforts to develop mechanisms that can turn AI safety principles into practice.

NO CONTROL BY A HANDFUL OF ENTITIES

Nadella stressed that the development of advanced AI should not be controlled by a small number of entities. He called for broad representation across the AI ecosystem, countries and fields, including academia.

“The key is that this cannot be controlled by a handful of entities,” he said.

Nadella outlined Microsoft's approach as “broad access and choice at every layer of the AI stack”, combined with enterprise control over learning loops and models.

He also said Microsoft would publish a “Code of Conduct” underlying its first-party MAI models for public consultation the following day.

- Ends