Satya Nadella says he changed his mind about whether making AI more powerful would also make it safer

Satya Nadella said he changed his mind on AI alignment and that it represented a separate challenge. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says he has changed his mind about the idea that alignment would naturally emerge as AI systems became more capable.

On a new episode of the 20VC podcast , host Harry Stebbings asked Nadella what he'd changed his mind about over the past year. The CEO said he had previously assumed that as AI became more capable, alignment — ensuring AI behaves in line with human values and goals — would automatically follow.

Instead, he said, while scaling has played out as he expected and the models' capabilities have continued to improve, alignment remained a challenge.

"I used to always think that alignment would just fall out," Nadella said. "I no longer believe that.…