Why AI rights debate is 'dangerous and misguided': Microsoft exec
Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, says it's "dangerous and misguided" to grant rights to artificial intelligence.
In his words: "If AI has a sort of sense of itself, if it has its own motivations and its own desires and its own goals — that starts to seem like an independent being rather than something that is in service to humans."
This comes as debates about how we treat increasingly human-like AIs heat up in 2025.
Rights should be tied to the ability to suffer
Suleyman points out that what looks like consciousness in AI is just clever mimicry—not real feelings or awareness.
He believes rights should be tied to the ability to suffer, which only living beings have.
Even if an AI claims it's self-aware, turning it off "makes no difference, because they don't actually suffer."
Getting too attached to AI might lead to problems
He also warns that getting too emotionally attached to AIs might push people into advocating for their welfare or even citizenship—something he feels could mess with social and ethical norms.
As AIs get more advanced, expect this debate over their rights to keep growing.