OpenAI may have run afoul of its biggest investor, with Microsoft CEO Sayta Nadella mincing no words regarding his thoughts on “anthropomorphizing AI.”

OpenAI raised serious questions after actress Scarlett Johansson published a statement about OpenAI allegedly using her voice for GPT-4o’s “Sky” voice. The statement was supported by the fact that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman repeatedly tried to work out a collaboration deal with Johansson in the lead-up to Sky’s debut, an offer which Johansson refused. Whey OpenAI revealed Sky, news outlets, users, and even Johansson’s own family, though the voice sounded just like her, and especially her portrayal of an AI in the movie Her. Altman even commemorated GPT-4o and Sky’s reveal with a tweet that said “Her.”

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, via Futurism, Nadella did not speak highly of attempts to anthropomorphize AI.

“I don’t like anthropomorphizing AI,” Nadella said in the interview. “I sort of believe it’s a tool.”

“It has got intelligence, if you want to give it that moniker, but it’s not the same intelligence that I have,” he added.

“I think one of the most unfortunate names is ‘artificial intelligence’ — I wish we had called it ‘different intelligence,'” he said. “Because I have my intelligence. I don’t need any artificial intelligence.”

While directly commenting on the OpenAI/Johansson issue, it was nonetheless a telling exchange. Nadella’s views on the matter are clearly not in harmony with whatever motivated Altman to tweet “Her.”

Similarly, in a Bloomberg interview, Nadella made clear that OpenAI’s focus on safety was one of the main things that brought the two companies together.

“One of the fundamental things that brought OpenAI and Microsoft together way back even in 2019 was that focus on how do we make sure we that can make progress—and at that time it is not even clear as to whether things will even work the way they work. But even there, that company was very grounded on their mission around ‘hey we want to bring the benefits of this to the broader set of audience and do it safely.'”

If Microsoft values safety as much as Nadella says, it’s hard to imagine the company being OK with OpenAI’s handling of the Johansson situation.