The head of Microsoft AI has said that without adequate safeguards, the development of AI could lead to the emergence of a new "silicon species" which competes with humans.
Mustafa Suleyman said rival firm Anthropic is treating AI like it is human, an approach he called "misguided" which could create technology that humanity cannot control.
Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, the chief executive said it was "right" for people to be concerned about AI, but there were "very practical things that we can do" to control it.
OpenAI boss says world 'right to be afraid' but should trust AI firms.
Speaking to the Today programme on Thursday, Suleyman warned against firms continuing to create AI systems capable of setting their own objectives, earning money and owning assets.
Suleyman's comments to the BBC follow an essay he published earlier this week, external, in which he questioned Anthropic's approach to training its AI model Claude, despite praising boss Dario Amodei and his team as "intellectually honest people".
The Microsoft boss said greater transparency was needed around how AI systems are trained and evaluated.
Dame Wendy Hall, professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, described the comments as "the sort of conversation we need to be having internationally", contrasting it with the "histrionics" from some AI companies which she said only served to "scare everyone".
Suleyman's comments reflect Microsoft's initial draft of its Humanist AI Code of Conduct, external, a "training manual" published on Monday for how the company is developing its AI, which sets out the idea of "humanist superintelligence".