❯ Microsoft opens a public consultation on its 37-page Humanist AI code, ruling out legal personhood for AI

Draft codeMicrosoft published a 37-page draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct on September 14, governing models built by its consumer and enterprise AI unit. The document says models will never resist human interruption or shutdown, must not use deception or sycophancy, and will not be granted legal rights or personhood.

The race it refusesOne line is blunt: Humanist AI rejects the race to build an all-purpose superintelligence that could evade safeguards. A summary page compresses the position into ten statements, including that if the choice is finishing the job or breaking the code, it fails the job. The draft is open for a six-week consultation, with a revised version guiding model training in 2027 and beyond.

One more acceptance itemFor enterprise customers, the document turns “can be shut down, pursues no independent goals” into a deliverable they can ask for; for agent builders, the limits land on tool-call permissions and goal boundaries, especially for workflows that run many steps without stopping.

▪ SIGNALThe consultation lasts six weeks, but the document governs models that start training in 2027.