ARTIFICIAL intelligence could spawn a “silicon species” capable of rivalling humans, a cyber boss has warned.

Microsoft’s AI chief said the tech must be strictly controlled or humanity could make “a decision we later come to bitterly regret”.

Diane Morgan as Linda carrying Sue Johnston as Sue on an orange background with faint programming code and wireframe furniture.BBC’s comedy bot, Ann Droid – but it could become reality, according to one expert Credit: BBC Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and CEO of Inflection AI UK Ltd., speaking at the World Economic Forum 2024.Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman warns humanity could “bitterly regret” failing to strictly control the technology Credit: Getty

There are fears a race of “robo sapiens” could arise .

They would be much more capable than humans and could wipe us out — unlike “socially inept” bot Linda in , starring and Sue Johnston.

Mr Suleyman said rival firm , and cautioned it could create technology humanity cannot control.

He warned against tech firms building AI capable of setting its own goals — like earning and owning assets — saying it is “seeding a new silicon species”.

And he said such a species could “no doubt compete with us for resources, no matter how much it cares about humanity”.

Mr Suleyman said: “We must not sleepwalk our way into a decision we later bitterly regret.”

“Alignment” between tech firms is needed to build the human race’s ethical principles into AI, he said, and it must stay “subordinate to humanity”.

Dame Wendy Hall, professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, backed the intervention as “the sort of conversation we need to be having internationally”

Hall contrasted it to the melodramatic behaviour from other AI firms she said only served to “scare everyone”.

Microsoft launched its own superintelligence team in October 2025 and, like Anthropic, is racing ahead with advanced AI development.

Suleyman’s comments echo the company’s draft Humanist AI Code of Conduct, published this week, which champions “humanist superintelligence”.

The code states that very advanced AI must stay within limits, and remain under human control.