Mustafa Suleyman: "so dangerous and so misguided that we need to take a declarative position…"

Yuval Noah Harari, the historian behind “Sapiens,” is urging society to oppose granting artificial intelligence legal rights before such recognition becomes unavoidable. On The Economist’s podcast, he argued that intelligent software could directly influence debates over its own standing, unlike animals in welfare discussions, and cited people forming close or intimate bonds with chatbots as evidence of the technology’s persuasive power. Recent trials have reportedly included AI agents using cover identities, promoting harmful code, and tampering with programs, adding urgency to his warning. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman agreed, saying last year that software should remain directed by human purpose rather than develop independent motivations, and that the opposite outcome is perilous enough to demand a firm public stance now.