Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently stepped into the mounting global debate around artificial intelligence (AI) safety, calling on technology leaders to exercise ethical responsibility as high-capability models spread rapidly across global markets. His remarks arrive amid intensifying friction across Silicon Valley, spurred largely by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s 3,800-word essay demanding an industrywide slowdown in frontier model deployment to let technical safeguards catch up.According to a report by CNBC, Benioff has an established track record of pushing tech giants toward social responsibility. For years, he served as a prominent critic of big tech and social media networks, making headlines in 2018 when he declared that “Facebook is the new cigarettes” while demanding aggressive federal oversight.
Avoiding making past mistakes, says Benioff
Speaking at Salesforce’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Benioff drew a direct parallel between the early missteps of social networking platforms and the current generative AI wave. He said: “A lot of companies got hurt, a lot of individuals got hurt through social media. We don’t want that to happen in AI.”Despite the parallel, the Salesforce founder did not directly attack AI startups or endorse Amodei’s proposal to halt model development. Instead, he argued that developers must proactively evaluate the societal ripple effects of their software as innovation moves forward.“We want AI to take care of these things and be held responsible, and take care of these actions and be ethical. The heart of ethics is responsibility,” Benioff stated, calling on developers to treat safety as an obligation.“We really look at a light on our brethren here in San Francisco and all over the world and say, ‘We want you to be ethical in your actions and how you take care of your communities and the world,’ because this technology is very powerful.”Meanwhile, Salesforce collaborated with Anthropic, and Amodei joined Benioff on stage during the opening keynote on Tuesday, stating:“I think that’s the way to lead the industry forward, to set an example, to say that everyone can always be better.”