sales force CEO Marc Benioff on Tuesday became the latest technology leader to call on the artificial intelligence industry to act responsibly as increasingly powerful models become more widely used.
His comments come amid a recent heated debate over the safety of AI. human A weekend essay from CEO Dario Amodei called on Frontier AI Labs to slow down model development to give safety measures more time to catch up.
Mr. Benioff has a history of imploring technology companies to think about the greater good. He has long been an outspoken critic of social media companies and their impact on society, declaring in 2018 that “Facebook is the new tobacco” and calling for stronger government regulation of the industry.
He is now warning AI companies not to repeat the same mistake. “So many companies have been hurt and so many individuals have been hurt through social media,” Benioff told Jim Cramer on “Mad Money” on the sidelines of the company’s annual Dreamforce event in San Francisco. “We don’t want that to happen with AI.”
This warning is especially noteworthy given Salesforce’s deep ties to companies at the forefront of the AI boom. Last month, Salesforce announced Claudeforce. It includes a plugin that allows clients to use Anthropic’s Claude to leverage customer data stored in Salesforce to perform tasks such as composing emails and updating records. On Tuesday, Mr. Amodei appeared on stage during Mr. Benioff’s keynote address and said, “I think this is a way to move the industry forward, to lead by example, and to say that everyone can always be better.”
Benioff did not criticize AI companies or support arguments for slowing AI development. Instead, he argued that the companies building the technology have a responsibility to consider its broader impact as they move forward with it. “We want AI to handle these things and hold them accountable and handle these actions ethically,” Benioff said. “The core of ethics is responsibility.”
He added, “We’re really looking at our fellow citizens here in San Francisco and around the world and saying, ‘We want you to be ethical in your actions and how you care for your community and the world. Because this technology is so powerful.’
Salesforce stock on Tuesday recouped some of its more than 4.5% advance from the previous session. Enterprise software stocks soared on Monday following Amodei’s call to slow down AI development. The group was folded earlier this year over fears of AI disruption, but has been revived in recent months as Wall Street warms to the idea that AI can’t replace everything. Salesforce is up more than 50% from its 52-week low of $146 in late June. This stock has been held in the CNBC Investing Club portfolio for a long time.
