Microsoft's new code of conduct promises more control over AI development

Microsoft has become the latest big tech firm to weigh in on the dangers of AI, with a new Humanist Code of Conduct that's up for public consultation.

The document sets out the principles on which the company plans to train its models, saying it's motivated by a single overriding objective: that humans must retain meaningful control over AI.

The principles it outlines are not yet being used to train Microsoft's models, with the company saying it wants to gather feedback through a public consultation. It will then publish a revised version of the code towards the end of this year, which will be used to guide model development in 2027 and beyond.

"The recent safety incidents of large scale, highly coordinated, and persistent hacking campaigns of AI agents prove that there's no time to waste. The stakes are high and only getting higher," said the firm.

"We believe it is more important than ever to create safe and reliable AI in service of people, and to be transparent about how we go about it."

The document prohibits AI models from certain behaviours: they mustn't help with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, generate violent or sexually explicit content or carry out offensive cyber operations.

They must not try to evade human oversight, engage in large-scale manipulation or make claims to consciousness, feelings or legal personhood.

"Whilst the science of AI consciousness is far from settled, we believe that training these systems to imitate consciousness-like states increases the challenge of containment, control, and alignment," Microsoft said.

The company said it's already consulted with experts in AI, law, ethics, philosophy, linguistics, and public policy, as well as business leaders from across industry, and has also held a series of focus groups with members of the public.

However, it's calling for more public input into the code of conduct, with a six-week consultation now open.

"We are especially interested in the hard parts: how can we better cement the right values in our models? How to be more concrete about the meaning of 'human flourishing'? Where is the language too loose to evaluate? How do multi-agent scenarios impact things?" it said.

"And perhaps most importantly of all, how do we continue to accelerate progress, whilst also ensuring we maintain healthy and necessary safety constraints?"

The release of the code of conduct follows a surge of concern over AI safety, including the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon. AI could, he said, lead to the extinction of the human race if more controls aren't put in place.

Anthropic's Dario Amodei has weighed in with a call to slow down AI development, as has OpenAI's Sam Altman – but not Donald Trump, who has described such concerns as 'a hoax'.

"AI's opportunity to deliver transformational benefits for humanity is real. And yet, if mismanaged, it will also pose grave dangers, including new and as-yet poorly understood frontier risks," Microsoft said.

"Models, and the process by which they are developed, deserve public scrutiny and engagement."

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