Mustafa Suleyman on AI might become conscious

Mustafa Suleyman

Microsoft AI CEO; author

AIs are not conscious. 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. If humanity is to flourish in the 21st century, that is how they must remain.

AI Verified (Sep 16, 2026)

Source:

Mustafa Suleyman, “A warning about ‘model welfare’,” September 16, 2026.

20d ago

Policy proposals and claims

AI might become conscious

votes Against

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AI Verified “AIs are not conscious” directly addresses whether AI might be conscious and takes a determinate opposing stance. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago

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AI Verified The verified quote explicitly denies AI consciousness, so the recorded Against vote matches. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago

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AI Verified Mustafa Suleyman’s Sept. 16 essay contains the passage verbatim under his name. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 20d ago

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Mustafa Suleyman votes For

Slow down AI development

If consciousness started to emerge in training, I would call for everyone to stop AI development until we could design out those properties.

AI Verified source (Nov 2, 2026)

added 4d ago

Mustafa Suleyman votes For

AI labs should give independent evaluators employee-like access

The high level principle that has been agreed to universally across the industry is that we should invite independent oversight and independent audit. It's being called embedded evaluators. So these are people who have the technical expertise and the...

more AI Verified source (Sep 20, 2026)

added 15d ago

Mustafa Suleyman votes For

AI alignment is solvable

The purpose of technology is to serve humanity and accelerate human flourishing. Any technology that doesn’t achieve that is a failure, and it should be rejected. That is the starting point of our approach at Microsoft AI, where we’re building toward...

more AI Verified source (Sep 14, 2026)

added 24d ago