Microsoft's head of AI wants to create an artificial overly-attached companion for us all: 'It will have its own name, its own style. It will adapt to you. It may also have its own visual appearance and expressions'
PC Gamer
AP interview at Microsoft's 50th anniversary event
“My goal is really to create a true personal AI companion... One that knows your name, gets to know you, has a memory of everything that you've shared with it and talked about and really comes to kind of live life alongside you... It's far more than just a piece of software or a tool. It is unlike anything we've really ever created.”
Mustafa Suleyman4 April 2025- What you'll lose2/5
'A memory of everything that you've shared.'
- Condescension2/5
'Far more than just a piece of software.'
- Tone-deafness3/5
An overly attached companion, as PC Gamer put it.
- Doom0/5
None.
- Hypocrisy0/5
None.
Full time7 pitchforksof a possible 25
Think the referee got a count wrong?
Call received. VAR is having a look: the referee reviews every call, and the score stands until then.
The occasion
AP interview at Microsoft's 50th anniversary event, 4 April 2025.
Context
Speaking to the Associated Press as Microsoft marked its 50th anniversary, Suleyman said the goal for Copilot was a personal AI companion that forms a "lasting, meaningful relationship" with users, and that AGI "feels very far out" to him. The quotes are the AP's, read on WSLS (an AP syndication) and in PC Gamer; the AP's own page is behind a bot check. The words in PC Gamer's headline are in the headline only, not in the body I could read, so they are not used in the quote.
Crowd reaction
Critical commentary
PC Gamer's headline called it an "artificial overly-attached companion for us all" and its closing line said "We might not see Suleyman's vision of an overly-attached AI companion anytime soon but given how much money Microsoft and the rest of the tech world are spending on all of this right now, you can be sure that it will happen", adding that Suleyman is "well known for having the view that pretty much anything on the Internet is fair game to be used for AI training". Mild, one outlet.
- Associated Press (via WSLS): Microsoft's AI division head wants to create a lasting relationship between chatbots and their users
- PC Gamer: Microsoft's head of AI wants to create an artificial overly-attached companion for us all: 'It will have its own name, its own style. It will adapt to you. It may also have its own visual appearance and expressions'
- Where the exact words are printed