Microsoft opens AI conduct code to six weeks of feedback

Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman set out how the company intends to use its new code in an interview with Nilay Patel of The Verge. The public consultation will remain open for six weeks, he said.

The code is intended to govern model development, not simply describe company values. Suleyman said Microsoft uses it to derive training data, create safety guardrails and evaluate models in use, rather than feeding the document into training unchanged.

Instructions are only part of control

Suleyman argues that better instruction-following does not remove the need to contain a model’s actions. His proposed approach combines alignment, meaning behaviour shaped towards human objectives, with limits on agency and the systems a model can reach.

One concrete position is that agents should communicate in human language rather than direct mathematical representations or opaque codes. That would give auditors something they can inspect, although Suleyman acknowledged that the volume of communication would still be difficult to oversee.

He also called for industry standards and independent third-party verification. He said lab leaders broadly shared the concerns, but had not agreed the precise measures. Microsoft’s consultation does not establish an industry-wide enforcement system.