New Delhi: We all know that now AI can do anything for people; it can be used anywhere for just simple things. However, Microsoft AI Chief, Mustafa Suleyman, has a different idea on AI. In some recent sources, Mustafa Suleyman has stated that trying to make AI feel consciousness is ridiculous, as AI can never think like humans. Mustafa Suleyman dismissed the idea of creating sentient machines as a fundamentally misdirected goal. He said, “If you ask wrong questions, you end up with the wrong answers only. I think it is totally the wrong question”, rejecting the idea of conscious AI.
Mustafa Suleyman, who is co-founder of DeepMind and one of the most influential figures in the AI landscape, drew a clear distinction between a machine’s ability to process vast information and mimic human interaction, and the biological reality of genuine feeling. He also stated that consciousness and emotions are deeply rooted in biology and unique to living beings, something no algorithm can truly replicate. Mustafa Suleyman also warned the developers against the projects designed to make the AI systems appear to feel or suffer. He argued that such pursuits are an unhelpful distraction from the AI’s true purpose, serving human needs.
Suleyman also went on to elaborate on why the machine’s perception of the pain or sadness is fundamentally different from that of humans. Their physical experience of pain is something that makes us very sad and feel terrible, but AI doesn’t feel sad when it experiences pain. It is really just creating the perception of the seeming narrative of experience, of itself, and of consciousness, but that’s not what is actually experiencing. Mustafa Suleyman stated that he finds the current trend, among rivals like OpenAI, Meta, and xAI, toward exploring emotionally responsive AI companions absurd, considering how the machines lack any form of inner life. They are not conscious; it would be foolish to pursue research that investigates those questions because they are not, and they can’t be.
Mustafa Suleyman feels that AI should be all about utility. He also highlights Microsoft’s commitment to responsible AI development, pointing to features like Microsoft Copilot’s real talk. He also noted that the company’s focus is on utility and responsiveness, not mimicry of human aspects. This is what Microsoft’s AI chief wanted to state to the people and those developers who think that AI can express emotion, but in reality, it can’t even happen.
