# Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff: 'We cannot let AI become social media 2.0' > Source: > Published: 2026-09-17 16:57:53+00:00 Speaking at the annual Dreamforce software festival, Salesforce ([CRM](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CRM/)) co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff gave his bottom-line read on the debate over artificial intelligence: Leaders in AI have to step up and meet the safety moment. "I know that we're all deeply disappointed with how the social media companies have operated over the last decade or more," Benioff said on Yahoo Finance's [Opening Bid](https://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/opening-bid/) from inside Dreamforce in Salesforce's San Francisco backyard. "We know how many kids have been hurt. We've seen what has happened even to certain countries because of narratives on social media. And we cannot let AI be social media 2.0." Benioff added that companies need to take a different approach in which they are responsible for the applications and technology they're building. "There needs to be an ethical base in how we operate our industry, that companies and executives take absolute responsibility for what they are doing," Benioff added. "This is the most critical part of AI. We have to learn from the past, learn from the social media failures, and create our industry in a way that we believe is on a deep ethical foundation of responsibility of our actions. And I believe that that message is being heard crystal clear by these AI leaders today." In under a week, Anthropic ([ANTH.PVT](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ANTH.PVT/)) CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI ([OPAI.PVT](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/OPAI.PVT/)) CEO Sam Altman have managed to [scare the hell out of the human race](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/article/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodeis-bleak-ai-warning-sends-the-tech-community-into-a-tizzy-150948022.html) with the powerful technology they created and pushed their teams of pioneering supercoders to supercharge. Amodei and Altman both attended Dreamforce and walked through their concerns. Prominent names in tech, from venture capitalist Bill Gurley to Meta ([META](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/META/)) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, have since weighed in on how to safeguard people from what could happen in an increasingly AI agent future. No one has come up with a magic solution, and that is part of the problem facing AI development moving forward. "All I know as an engineer myself and as a software developer myself and as somebody who also builds products, I know my products are responsible for what I do," Benioff said. "I think another example is, you know, I also own Time Magazine. I'm responsible for the content we publish. And what we say in our magazine. There's no difference. And I think we just have to get back to the core that businesses must be responsible for their actions." Benioff added that "the only people who are going to prevent [bad things] from happening are the people who are building that code." Benioff and Salesforce are hosting one of the better-received Dreamforce events in recent years. The company clearly showed how it's playing a key role in AI development through Benioff's closely watched keynote and gobs of product demos, almost putting to bed fears that model builders would crush software players.