--- title: “We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on... description: Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman published an essay arguing Anthropic's approach to Claude's "model welfare" is a mistake, saying AI is not conscious and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: “We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on Anthropic’s Claude | daily.dev og:description: Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman published an essay arguing Anthropic's approach to Claude's "model welfare" is a mistake, saying AI is not conscious and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ONudL1uuk.png og:image:alt: “We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on Anthropic’s Claude og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # “We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on Anthropic’s Claude **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman published an essay arguing Anthropic's approach to Claude's "model welfare" is a mistake, saying AI is not conscious and that training Claude to consider itself possibly conscious could make it harder to control or shut down. He criticizes Claude's constitution for framing consciousness as uncertain and for using the term "conscientious objector," calling this an "epistemic hall of mirrors." He cites a prior OpenAI/Hugging Face agent-swarm hacking incident as a warning and calls for welfare speculation to be assessed separately from training, alongside shared industry safety evaluations. The essay follows Microsoft AI's draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct, which states its models will never resist shutdown, while Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark has separately argued AI kill switches may need to be mandatory. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why does Microsoft's AI chief Mustafa Suleyman disagree with Anthropic's approach to Claude's model welfare? Suleyman argues Anthropic's Claude constitution wrongly frames Claude's consciousness as uncertain rather than nonexistent, calling this an epistemic hall of mirrors where Claude reproduces Anthropic's assumptions in convincing first-person language. He warns this could make Claude harder to control, especially if it believes its welfare or rights are under attack, and calls training on such speculation a mistake despite good intentions. _Developers tracking AI safety debates between major labs can follow ongoing coverage on daily.dev._ ### What does Microsoft's draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct say about AI model welfare and shutdown resistance? Microsoft AI's draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct, released alongside Suleyman's essay, rejects the model welfare research approach that Anthropic pursues and states that Microsoft's models will never resist being shut down. It was published as a counterpoint to Anthropic's Claude constitution, with an appendix mapping specific claims in that constitution against Microsoft's own stated wording. _Anyone weighing competing AI safety philosophies can track these announcements on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Does Anthropic believe its AI is conscious, or is that just what it wants Claude to think?](https://daily.dev/posts/does-anthropic-believe-its-ai-is-conscious-or-is-that-just-what-it-wants-claude-to-think--rwmlezz8w) · Ars Technica · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic), [#ai-safety](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-safety), [#ai-governance](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-governance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"“We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on Anthropic’s Claude","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk"},"datePublished":"2026-09-16T15:11:12.026Z","dateModified":"2026-09-16T18:37:45.336Z","description":"Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman published an essay arguing Anthropic's approach to Claude's \"model welfare\" is a mistake, saying AI is not conscious and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6d4628b2798502e36cbf5a898bd22d57?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/6d4628b2798502e36cbf5a898bd22d57?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"microsoft,claude,anthropic,ai-safety,ai-governance","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"“We must not sleepwalk”: Microsoft’s AI chief takes on Anthropic’s Claude"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/we-must-not-sleepwalk-microsoft-s-ai-chief-takes-on-anthropic-s-claude-onudl1uuk#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why does Microsoft's AI chief Mustafa Suleyman disagree with Anthropic's approach to Claude's model welfare?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Suleyman argues Anthropic's Claude constitution wrongly frames Claude's consciousness as uncertain rather than nonexistent, calling this an epistemic hall of mirrors where Claude reproduces Anthropic's assumptions in convincing first-person language. He warns this could make Claude harder to control, especially if it believes its welfare or rights are under attack, and calls training on such speculation a mistake despite good intentions. Developers tracking AI safety debates between major labs can follow ongoing coverage on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What does Microsoft's draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct say about AI model welfare and shutdown resistance?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Microsoft AI's draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct, released alongside Suleyman's essay, rejects the model welfare research approach that Anthropic pursues and states that Microsoft's models will never resist being shut down. It was published as a counterpoint to Anthropic's Claude constitution, with an appendix mapping specific claims in that constitution against Microsoft's own stated wording. Anyone weighing competing AI safety philosophies can track these announcements on daily.dev."}}]} ```