Salesforce CEO: “I Don’t Trust Anyone Who Uses the Term AGI”

⬤ Benioff says the tech world is “hypnotized” by the idea of Artificial General Intelligence, calling it far from today’s reality.

⬤ Tech leaders are divided—some see AGI as imminent, others, like Benioff, call it speculative and overhyped.

⬤ Eric Schmidt and others argue that chasing AGI has alienated the public and sidelined practical AI applications.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says he is deeply skeptical of anyone who uses three particular letters: AGI, short for Artificial General Intelligence. Speaking on a recent podcast, Benioff remarked, “We have all been hypnotized by what is supposedly going to happen with AI.” While many in the field of artificial intelligence express optimism about achieving human-level intelligence, others remain unconvinced. Benioff, it seems, falls squarely into the latter group.

Salesforce has embraced artificial intelligence as a core pillar of its business strategy in recent years. However, Benioff made it clear that the idea of AGI, which is a loosely defined concept describing an AI system capable of performing complex tasks at the level of human intelligence, remains far from certain.

During the podcast, host Harry Stebbings shared a story from the head of Amazon’s AGI lab in San Francisco, who claimed that fewer than one thousand people worldwide could be “highly valuable contributors” to building a new foundational model. Benioff interrupted with a laugh: “Head of AGI? That sounds like an oxymoron.” He continued, “I am very skeptical of anyone who uses those letters. I think we have all been hypnotized by this idea of what AI will become.”

The debate over artificial general intelligence is growing louder across Silicon Valley, as tech leaders argue about whether it is coming, when it might arrive, or whether it has already begun to take shape. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently said that GPT-5 has not yet reached general intelligence because it lacks the ability to “learn continuously.” At the same time, OpenAI has warned investors that money itself could lose meaning in a post-AGI world. Meanwhile, Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, has said that the absence of consistency and reasoning limits today’s AI systems from reaching true general intelligence.

Benioff believes we are still far from that milestone, but does not rule out the possibility entirely. “I simply recognize that this is not the state of technology today,” he said.

His comments align him with other technology leaders who are skeptical of the hype surrounding AGI. In a recent New York Times opinion piece, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and analyst Selina Xu wrote that Silicon Valley has become “so obsessed” with AGI that it has alienated the public and, worse, overlooked immediate opportunities to use existing AI technology more effectively. Others have warned against apocalyptic predictions about AGI’s arrival. David Sacks, the White House’s head of cybersecurity, commented that “the end of the world due to AGI has been greatly exaggerated.”

Despite his doubts, Benioff remains enthusiastic about AI’s potential. He praised large language models as “the most technically advanced systems ever created” and acknowledged why people sometimes feel they are interacting with something human. Yet he drew a clear line: “It is not a person. It is not intelligent. It is not conscious. It has never suffered and it has no empathy.”