In an August essay titled “We must build AI for people; not to be a person,” he cautioned that anthropomorphic bots could “create another axis of division for humanity.”

On Thursday, Suleyman said that trend was already emerging in the tech world, citing erotic AI startups and companion platforms that blur the line between entertainment and emotional attachment.

“You can already see it with some of these avatars and people leaning into the kind of sexbot erotica direction,” he said.

“This is very dangerous, and I think we should be making conscious decisions to avoid those kinds of things.”

The firms’ dueling messages could be the latest sign of a growing philosophical split between the AI partners, whose alliance has anchored Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar expansion into generative tech since 2019.