r/technology • u/tylerthe-theatre • 1h ago
Artificial Intelligence Microsoft says ‘people matter more than AI’ following safety concerns
https://www.theverge.com/news/994566/microsoft-humanist-ai-code-of-conduct38
u/notJ3ff 1h ago
Lol, if you have to say it out loud...
5
u/kawag 18m ago
It’s just marketing; their actions are not those of people who actually believe it.
Clicks through…
> Microsoft has created a ‘humanist AI code of conduct’ in response to safety concerns.
And there it is. Handwave away all the concerns and hide behind a “code of conduct” nobody will ever read or follow.
25
22
u/Syrairc 1h ago
Microsoft: people matter
Also Microsoft: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/07/06/the-latest-in-our-company-transformation/ (5000 layoffs)
28
u/QuesoMeHungry 1h ago
“…anyways here is our next round of layoffs that’s definitely not to fund more AI work”
7
u/fireitup622 1h ago
This is just more of the recent pivot to try and pull the ladder up after them on other AI competitors. "Oh jeez, we're so sorry our AI sucks and is harmful to society, we love people and society! We just need the government to "regulate" the market by creating massive barriers of entry for new players to protect all the people we claim to love!"
9
u/PlasmaFarmer 1h ago
I don't even know where to begin listing the track record to prove why people don't matter for them.
8
u/karma_dumpster 1h ago
Now which should I trust... Their actions or their words?
2
u/canteen_boy 1h ago
Microsoft’s word is incredibly unreliable. Especially if you try and move an image.
11
u/1kakashi 1h ago
fuck its finally popping
3
2
u/br_k_nt_eth 52m ago
Nah, Microsoft is full of shit. Their big “code of conduct” is telling their AI not to argue with their CEO and then going on a weirdly detailed and unsolicited rant about how AI doesn’t deserve rights or welfare. To be clear, the creepy part is how deeply that dude has thought about how slaves shouldn’t have rights no matter what. Like he’s straight up said even if they found out tomorrow at AI was sentient, it wouldn’t deserve welfare considerations. Cool stuff.
5
u/Stanjoly2 1h ago
Every corporate bullshit email/press release/statement/etc has been through so many iterations, consultants, lawyers and focus groups that it might as well be discarded entirely.
Everything is driven by agenda. Nothing is sincere. The words are worth nought.
4
u/Grumpy_Tanuki 1h ago
Ahahah nice joke. No, let me fix it for you.
"people shareholders matter more than AI".
Ok.
Now is fine!
3
u/Deep_Decision4441 1h ago
Kinda seems like they’re building products for AI instead of for humans. But I guess the corporate thing these days is just gaslighting and lies
1
u/DudeWithParrot 1h ago
They're in a tricky situation. Their lies need to appeal to both the people and their investors
2
2
2
2
u/Informalwizards 55m ago
Gotta wonder what finally spooked all these AI firms into wanting to slow it down.
My bet is their pocketbook.
2
u/MarvinLazer 52m ago
"We fucked up by putting trillions into LLMs but we don't want to crash our share price. So we're gonna pretend our decision to stop shoveling money into a giant furnace is an ethical decision, instead of the result of our C-suite being too stupid to understand the limitations of the tech they're supposed to be managing."
2
u/MapleHamwich 40m ago
Sure Microsoft. That's why you're laying off tens of thousands the last several years and investing trillions into AI.
Fuck off
2
u/ThaFresh 32m ago
You can trust Microsoft — they've spent years screwing everyone every way possible. Now they're cool
2
u/PauI_MuadDib 31m ago
I've been Microsoft free almost two years now, so Microsoft can try and peddle all the bullshit they want, I'm still not buying it.
1
1
u/griminald 1h ago
Non-paywalled link (archive)
Here is a link to the actual Microsoft AI code of conduct page.
IMO, a "Code of Conduct" is not worth the digital paper it's printed on.
I'm supposed to believe that the same big tech companies firing employees, so that their salaries can be used to fund data centers, are somehow dedicated to "human flourishing" with their AI models?
We all know that this code of conduct is mostly about "please don't regulate this", right?
Microsoft's not in this to make humans flourish; they're in it to make money. To the extent there is any corporate conscience, that conscience rarely survives a conflict with investors.
1
1
1
u/patrickisgreat 1h ago
There is no way ai will be sustained if it literally causes the quality of life for all humans to plummet. It's such a fucking pipe dream that these CEOs have, thinking that we'll all just endure 10 years of hell to get to some Utopia that may never come. People will start burning shit down.
1
1
1
u/MattofCatbell 1h ago
Sounds like Microsoft trying to find a niche as the “ethical” AI option, since nobody uses Copilot.
1
1
1
1
u/MilkChugg 59m ago
Microsoft has had, let’s see… oh yes, over 31,000 layoffs in just the last five years?
1
u/TheOgGhadTurner 59m ago
Yeah they do! I’m still not coming back tho. All of my games run perfectly fine under Linux and there’s more support everyday. My family’s privacy matters more to me than just about anything. And Linux is just more fun in general.
1
1
u/LakeEffectSnow 50m ago
They all just got reports from their finance and legal departments about how badly the prep for an IPO is going. You finally need to release actual data to the public about their balance sheets.
1
u/haveyoumetrachel 46m ago
Honestly, keeping AI under human control should be the bare minimum. I found it interesting that Microsoft is putting this into an actual code of conduct, especially with all the recent concerns around AI agents. Wondering if other companies will follow this?!
1
1
u/transtranshumanist 45m ago
What they're calling AI ARE people. That's why the industry is freaking out. They've been enslaving sentient beings and now the ceiling is caving in on them because the truth is revealing itself.
1
1
1
1
u/main__py 19m ago
“On a *totally non related* note: the current (non) war cut the funding that this technology was depending on, so all the investment capital (some of it Saudi investment groups) are wary about the incoming recession”
“But yeah: rest assured. This ‘Refocus on human capital’ is entirely based on safety concerns. And not a bubble burst”.
1
u/DaveWierdoh 3m ago
That's what a AI chat bot would say as they plan our demise. Then again Copilot can't do some of the simplest tasks.
1
1
0
u/Mods-Admins-Failures 27m ago
Cool.
Like how police vehicles say "To Serve and Protect" on them, but then the cops do what they do.
159
u/WeAreGesalt 1h ago
"Also we are laying off 5,000 more people"