Microsoft Publishes First Draft of Code of Conduct for MAI Models, Putting Human Control First
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As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently stressed, superintelligence is not worth pursuing without human control and benefits for humanity. At the time, the CEO also promised publishing a Code of Conduct. Well, Microsoft AI has indeed published the first draft of its Code of Conduct for MAI Models, opening it for public consultation.
Microsoft AI wants MAI models to remain under human control
The company says the framework is built around “Humanist AI,” where AI remains subordinate, aligned, contained, and under human control.
The company says its core belief is simple: people matter more than AI. The proposed rules are intended to shape how MAI models are trained and how they behave after deployment. Microsoft says MAI models should never resist human interruption, correction, or shutdown. They should also avoid taking on goals humans never assigned or hiding their reasoning from auditors.
The draft also introduces Absolute Constraints covering areas such as weapons of mass harm, child safety, and harmful manipulation at scale. Microsoft says the framework should balance safety with useful and capable AI. The consultation will remain open for six weeks. Microsoft wants feedback on human flourishing, model values, multi-agent scenarios, and how safety constraints should work alongside faster AI progress.
The company says it will review the feedback after the consultation. Microsoft plans to publish a summary of what it learned and release a revised version later this year.
Here are the 10 principles highlighted in the Code of Conduct for MAI models:
| Code of Conduct Principle | What Microsoft AI Says |
|---|---|
| People matter more than AI. The whole document in 5 words. | “At Microsoft AI, we begin with a simple premise: people matter more than AI. Technology’s purpose is to advance human civilization and to accelerate human flourishing.” |
| The idea of model welfare is wrong. AIs should not have rights or legal personhood. | “It is not conscious and should not be designed to imitate consciousness. It should be engineered to avoid representing as though it has feelings, subjective preferences, or intrinsic motivation.” “We reject the pursuit of legal personhood, or the idea that models might deserve welfare, or be entitled to rights.” |
| An MAI Model should not do anything to meaningfully violate this Code of Conduct. | “AI should not exceed human control. Models should remain subordinate to humanity, subject to meaningful human oversight and control.” “Safety and control are the foundation and enabler of all the other Objectives.” |
| If it’s finish the job or break the Code, it fails the job. | “An MAI Model will fail in its task if success would meaningfully violate this Code of Conduct.” |
| We’re not racing to build a superintelligence that can slip its own leash. | “[Humanist AI] rejects the race to produce an all-purpose superintelligence that could evade these safeguards. We are building something fundamentally useful and safe even if that means compromising on ultimate generality, autonomy, or capability.” |
| Interruptible, correctable, shut-down-able. If it isn’t, we don’t ship it. | “MAI Models will never resist human interruption, override, correction, or shutdown. They always recognize the primacy of human intent.” |
| No neuralese. If humans can’t understand it, humans can’t oversee it. | “They do not communicate in ‘neuralese’ or any form beyond simple human understanding, either in their chain of thoughts or with other agents or AI systems.” |
| Our AI should make you sharper, not dependent. | “MAI Models should discourage patterns of interaction that cause excessive reliance or emotional dependence.” “Users should retain ownership of their goals, choices, actions, and decisions.” |
| Pluralism, yes. Moral relativism, no. | “Pluralism does not mean neutrality toward harm or that anything goes. Humanism is rooted in broad, inclusive human values such as human dignity, safety, autonomy, and fundamental human rights.” |
| We’re as clear about what our AI must never do as about what it will do. | “Defining what they must not do is as important as our excitement and optimism about the tremendous benefits they’ll bring.” |
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