The Neuron: AI Explained Mustafa Suleyman on Seemingly Conscious AI and Microsoft's Next Chapter
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Sep 24, 2025 
Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of DeepMind and CEO of Microsoft AI, dives into the complex world of seemingly conscious AI. He discusses the risks of anthropomorphizing machines and the ethical implications of treating them as sentient beings. Suleyman emphasizes the importance of clear boundaries for AI and the need for ecosystem governance as powerful models emerge. He also shares insights on Microsoft's strategy in leveraging open source while building innovative tools like Copilot and MAI-1 to enhance user experiences and productivity.
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Prediction Power Creates Illusion Of Mind
- Large language models generate text by predicting the next word using statistical patterns, yet produce complex conversation and expertise.
- Despite outward intelligence, Mustafa Suleyman emphasizes these models are hollow and lack internal emotional or pain networks.
Pi: Early Companion AI Experience
- Mustafa co-founded Inflection AI and built Pi, an early conversational agent designed to be kind and supportive.
- He observed early that companionship and basic kindness are huge beneficial use cases for conversational AI.
Consciousness Requires Subjective Suffering
- Consciousness is subjective and tied to memory, valenced feelings, and suffering, which current models lack by design.
- Granting rights or welfare to models risks misallocating moral concern and could undermine human interests, Mustafa warns.
