New Delhi. The latest statement of Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleiman is creating a stir in the world of AI. In an interview with the Financial Times, Suleiman warned that artificial intelligence (AI) will completely automate most white-collar jobs within the next 12 to 18 months. He said that white-collar jobs, that is, the work that people do sitting in front of a computer, be it lawyers, chartered accountants, project managers or marketing professionals, most of these tasks will be completely automated by AI in the next 12-18 months.

Coding with the help of AI
Giving the example of software engineering, he said that now engineers are getting most of their code made with the help of AI. Their role has now shifted towards ‘strategic’ tasks such as designing architecture and bringing it into production. According to Suleman, this change has been seen only in the last six months. Furthermore, he said that AI models existing today can code better than most human coders, perhaps even better than all coders ever written. He stressed that creating new AI models will now be ‘as easy as creating a podcast or writing a blog’. Institutions and organizations will be able to design AI themselves as per their needs. During this, he also told that in the next two to three years, AI agents will be able to handle the workflow of large institutions more efficiently.

Microsoft’s Superintelligence Mission
Talking about his vision, Suleman said that Microsoft aims to create a superintelligence. He said that a few months ago the company had renegotiated the long-term agreement with OpenAI and extended the IP license till 2032. He said that we have also decided that now is the time to achieve true AI self-reliance. Suleman discussed Microsoft’s plan to develop its own independent basic AI models, which would have a strong training team and would prepare the data in a systematic and orderly manner.

These comments from the Microsoft AI chief come at a time when there are growing concerns about AI replacing human work and mass layoffs. Earlier, Amazon had said in a blog post that due to increasing competition to AI, jobs of about 16000 companies may be affected. Last year, Microsoft said in a blog post that it had signed a new agreement with OpenAI, which builds on the growing partnership between the two organizations. Under this agreement, OpenAI will remain Microsoft’s key model partner and will extend exclusive intellectual property rights between the two companies.