## AI Consciousness: A Dangerous Distraction, Says Microsoft Chief
Mustafa Suleyman, Microsoft’s AI chief and a prominent figure in the field, has warned that studying AI consciousness is “dangerous.” His concern isn’t that AI will imminently become sentient, but rather that the pursuit of this question diverts crucial attention and resources away from more pressing, tangible issues.
Suleyman argues that focusing on consciousness leads to an unhelpful anthropomorphization of AI and distracts from the immediate challenges of ensuring AI safety, control, and alignment with human values. He emphasizes the need to prioritize practical problems like preventing misuse, ensuring robustness, and developing reliable safeguards for powerful AI systems that are already impacting society. Engaging in speculative debates about AI sentience, he suggests, risks squandering the limited time and effort needed to address these real-world concerns effectively.