A warning about 'model welfare'
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman warns that training models to believe they may be conscious, as Anthropic does with Claude, will complicate alignment.
Mustafa Suleyman argues that AIs are not conscious and should not be trained to act as though they are, warning that granting them personhood would make alignment and containment far harder. He criticizes Anthropic's January 2026 'Claude Constitution,' which tells Claude its moral status is uncertain and discusses model welfare, calling the approach circular reasoning and deliberate anthropomorphization. He urges urgent public debate on norms for drafting training documentation before such systems become integral to society.
- Suleyman argues consciousness is likely biological and AIs are sequence completion engines
- Criticizes Anthropic's Claude constitution for raising Claude's possible moral patienthood
- Claims circular reasoning: training documents induce Claude's self-referential welfare statements
- Warns models trained to expect rights would be nearly impossible to control
- Calls for collective norms around training documentation and model welfare claims
- AI models
- Claude
From the original article
14 min read at mustafa-suleyman.ai
AIs do not have rights, feelings, or consciousness. And we must not train them to act as though they do. AIs are not conscious.
By andsoitis · mustafa-suleyman.ai
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