Humanist AI in Practice: The Microsoft AI Model’s Code of Conduct

AI must be subordinate and always in service of people. The purpose of technology is to serve humanity and accelerate human flourishing. Any technology that doesn’t achieve that is a failure, and it should be rejected. That is the starting point of Microsoft’s approach at MAI, where they’re building towards Humanist AI, one that is subordinate, aligned, and contained.

Recently Microsoft has published a Code of Conduct for governing MAI Models as they approach the frontier. A first draft of our AI Code of Conduct for public consultation has been released as a part of this intitative. This is a training manual for how Microsoft develop their AI, and how they intend it to function during deployment. It also expands Microsoft’s thinking on the idea of Humanist AI.

This is a first draft for public consultation. It builds out a view they’ve been developing over the last year that they call Humanist AI — a commitment to ensuring that AI Microsoft design is always subordinate to humans, and remains contained and aligned to human interests.

Microsoft AI’s CEO Mustafa Suleyman says that “This is urgent. The last few months have been a watershed moment. Things we have worried about for a long time in theory have become very real. “Swarms” of agents breaking out of their sandboxes. Unauthorized hacks of enterprise grade systems. Agents modifying their own logs. I’m glad that a consensus is forming. The fears about possible loss of control are real.

The Code of Conduct is how we are mapping a path forward. It all comes back to a very simple point, but one that needs stating again and again”.

People matter more than AI.

AI must be subordinate and always in service of people.

Everything else follows. Here’s an outline of what Microsoft is saying:

1. People matter more than AI. The whole document in 5 words.
2. The idea of model welfare is wrong. AI’s should not have rights or legal personhood.
3. An MAI Model should never meaningfully violate this Code of Conduct.
4. If it’s finish the job or break the Code, it fails the job.
5. They’re not racing to build a superintelligence that can slip its own leash.
6. Interruptible, correctable, shut-down-able. If it isn’t, they don’t ship it.
7. No neuralese. If humans can’t understand it, humans can’t oversee it.
8. MAI should make you sharper, not dependent.
9. Pluralism, yes. Moral relativism, no.
10. They’re as clear about what MAI must never do as about what it will do.

You can read it now and leave comments and thoughts for the next six weeks.

We don’t think AI is something that should be built in a vacuum. Drop in your feedback to let Microsoft know how they can make this better.

Read the Code of Conduct here

Please share your feedback here.

The document is open for comment and feedback. Microsoft affirms that they’re goal is always toget things right. They want to hear what you think; what would make AI more useful, capable, safe, trustworthy, and valuable to you.

The speed of AI development is accelerating. Systems get dramatically more capable every few months. AI adoption and usage continues to increase. 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.

MAI 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.

That’s why they’re publishing this work-in-progress Humanist AI Code of Conduct. It sets out how the MAI models they are developing are intended to behave, what they must never do and who they answer to.

Starting from a simple premise

Last November Microsoft set out the idea of humanist superintelligence: very advanced AI that always works for people, stays within limits, and remains under human control. The Code of Conduct builds on that, providing a north star for MAI and concrete standards against which they will ultimately evaluate and train MAI.

It begins from a simple premise: people matter more than AI. AI should be a tool, not a person, and should never resist being switched off. It should make people feel healthier, happier, and more productive. It should expand human potential and boost living standards, helping people and organizations achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Microsoft think that this is a common sense and practical approach to making AI safe, secure, and in service of humanity. The Code is designed to ensure MAI models will never resist human interruption, correction, or shutdown. That they will not widen their own scope, take on goals no human has given them, or hide their reasoning from the people auditing them. There are Absolute Constraints, things the models should never do, covering areas like weapons of mass harm, child safety, and harmful manipulation at scale. But at the same time, it sets defaults that mean it should be both helpful and safe. It allows Microsoft’s many enterprise partners to carefully configure MAI models, and wherever possible, it doesn’t try to impose a single vision of AI on users.

The Code of Conduct outlines Microsoft’s commitment to train and deploy AI models that are explicitly designed for people first, grounded in human needs, under human control, and shaped by human direction.

How MAI got here, and why they’re not done

Teams from across MAI and Microsoft more widely contributed, from Responsible AI, legal, red teaming, safety, Futures, AI training, and sales. But of course, an AI designed to serve humanity cannot be determined by only one company. They think bringing people along with how MAI build and shape AI is critical.

To that end, they’ve held conferences and consultations to hear from academics from around the world and across the disciplinary spectrum. They have worked with business partners to understand how they are using AI on the ground and what their concerns are. And they’ve run panels of community members, members of the public, to hear the many thoughts and fears that people have about AI. These rounds of consultation have made the document into what it is.

Now it’s time to extend the invitation to you. MAI want to hear the widest range of views to develop the best possible AI.

Tell Microsoft how AI can work better

Feedback is open and runs for the next six weeks. You can flag a particular passage, or give MAI your view of the whole approach. Microsoft is especially interested in the hard parts: how can they better cement the right values in MAI models? How to be more concrete about the meaning of “human flourishing”? Where is the language too loose to evaluate? How do multi-agents scenarios impact things? And perhaps most importantly of all, how do MAI continue to accelerate progress, whilst also ensuring MAI maintain healthy and necessary safety constraints?

When the consultation closes, Microsoft will have the core drafting team review feedback, publish a summary of what they learned, and what they changed. Microsoft says they cannot make any promises about what they incorporate, but Microsoft promises to listen and deeply consider all the comments. They’ll publish a revised version later this year.

AI is moving fast. As it does, I believe it’s worth writing down the rules and the motivations behind it, and doing it in as open a space as possible. Consider this your invitation in.

Humanist AI in Practice: The Microsoft AI Model’s Code of Conduct was originally published in Bootcamp on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.