Benioff Joins AI Safety Debate, Cautions Tech Giants Over Responsible Development

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has weighed in on the AI safety debate, cautioning tech giants to develop and use artificial intelligence responsibly. Speaking at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Benioff pointed out the risks associated with AI development, drawing parallels with social media platforms.

Benioff emphasized that developers have a responsibility to consider the consequences of their creations, echoing Microsoft's recent publication of a draft code for safe and reliable AI development. The Salesforce founder has long been an advocate for civic welfare and has been critical of social networks, once labeling Facebook 'the new cigarettes' in 2018.

Benioff's comments come amid growing concerns over the potential dangers of AI, with Anthropic head Dario Amodei recently urging developers to slow their deployment speed to allow security guardrails to mature. Salesforce has deep commercial ties with prominent machine learning developers, including its recent integration of Anthropic's Claude assistant into corporate customer records.