Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has issued a sharp warning against the growing concentration of power in the artificial intelligence industry, arguing that a handful of companies should not dictate the future of a technology that is reshaping economies, workplaces and societies.
In an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal, Nadella outlined a vision for the next phase of the AI boom that centres on lower-cost models, greater user control and broader access to the technology.
“You can’t say, hey, all white-collar jobs are gone and this could even be a weapon and we will use all the power to build data centres,” Nadella said.
He argued that the public would not accept a future in which only a small number of companies controlled the learning, deployment and benefits of AI. Instead, he called for an approach that wins public trust and earns what he described as the industry’s “social permission”.
The remarks place Nadella at the forefront of a growing debate over the direction of the AI race. While not naming specific rivals, he criticised a model in which a small group of firms capture most of the value from AI while simultaneously warning about safety risks, job losses and the need for vast resources to continue scaling their systems.
One of the most closely watched decisions facing Microsoft is whether to host DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company whose low-cost models have attracted global attention.
