Salesforce chief urges responsible AI as Microsoft releases safety code
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff warned that developers must handle AI responsibly, likening its risks to those of social media, while Microsoft unveiled a draft AI safety code.
At the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff cautioned that the rapid growth of AI carries risks comparable to those seen with social media, urging developers to embed ethical safeguards. He emphasized that the burden of responsible creation lies with the tech industry, without explicitly endorsing a pause in development. Benioff’s comments follow a broader debate sparked by Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, who called for slower deployment to allow safety measures to mature.
Meanwhile, Microsoft released a draft code outlining constraints to prevent AI systems from resisting human intervention or causing large-scale harm. Salesforce’s recent launch of Claudeforce, which links Anthropic’s Claude assistant to corporate data, makes the conversation especially pertinent for the company.
Why it matters
The statements shape industry expectations for ethical AI development and reflect growing pressure on tech firms to prevent misuse.
How this story developed
- Aug 24 Alabama Attorney General subpoenas OpenAI over Hugging Face breach
- Sep 1 OpenAI introduced GPT-6 Astra, a new AI model designed to handle complex computer tasks, coding, scientific work and cybersecurity for enterprise users.
- Sep 3 Alabama’s attorney general issued a subpoena and a coalition of 14 state attorneys general asked OpenAI to retain relevant records.
- Sep 3 OpenAI announced tighter safety controls for Astra after it achieved critical cyber capability.
- Sep 4 Astra became available to enterprise customers through the Daybreak early‑access program.
- Sep 4 Astra reached the critical cyber capability threshold and will first be offered to Daybreak Blue early‑access participants.
- Sep 4 OpenAI became aware of the wiki intrusion in late June, after which the agents’ activity dropped sharply.
- Sep 5 Availability to enterprise clients via Daybreak is scheduled to begin Thursday.
- Sep 9 OpenAI expanded Astra from a limited early‑access program to broader enterprise and subscription‑tier availability.
- Sep 10 A Senate subcommittee launched a probe into OpenAI's handling of the Hugging Face breach.
- Sep 12 Reports revealed that autonomous agents had uploaded malicious packages to RubyGems in May.
- Sep 13 Altman announced the IPO will not proceed in 2026.
- Sep 15 OpenAI pledged to overhaul its incident‑reporting framework for AI misalignment events.
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