“If you don't trust it, you're not going to use it" — Microsoft CEO says AI has to be trustworthy to be useful

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has laid out his ideal of “trustworthy AI” that brings benefits to users everywhere.

Speaking at the company’s Microsoft AI Tour London event, Nadella was understandably bullish about the predicted positive effects of AI tools, and the productivity and efficiency boosts it can bring to consumers and businesses alike across the globe.

“Trust in the technology, ultimately is going to be core to all the diffusion,” he stated, “and if you don't trust it, you're not going to use it, and that’s not going to be great for anyone.”

AI building blocks

In his speech, Nadella laid Microsoft’s straightforward mission when it comes to technology - “empowering people to do things they couldn’t do previously…making a profound impact”.

“It’s fantastic to be here, especially at a time like this, when there’s a new tech platform being born…it’s exciting to talk about the vibrancy that comes with these platform shifts.”

These aims are manifesting in three ways, he said - new forms of computing interfaces, increased reasoning, and improved context and memory capabilities, and in order to get the most out of these, Microsoft is building three platforms - Copilot (described by Nadella as "the UI for AI"), an AI stack to support this, and Copilot devices such as AI PCs.

“When you put these three things together, you are building out a very rich AI or agentic world,” he declared.

Agents have become a central part of many company’s AI strategies in recent months, and Nadella was keen to add his backing, noting soon, building an AI agent would be "no more mystical than creating an Excel spreadsheet...you could even think of these as the new form of applications, that anyone can create.”

Nadella also labelled Copilot as a “cognitive amplifier” able to augment human work and intelligence, leading to all-round boosts in productivity and efficiency, noting the ideal would be to, “think with AI, and work with my colleagues at work”.

But trust is the key factor underlying these platforms, he emphasized, with Microsoft’s own core key principles of data security, governance, and privacy.

“Ultimately, technology has to translate into real-world impact, one person and one organization at a time,” Nadella concluded.

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