Salesforce’s Benioff calls for AI regulation, says models have become ‘suicide coaches’

CNBC January 20, 2026
Lola Murti

Key Points

– Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said artificial intelligence needs to be regulated after several documented cases of suicide were linked to the emerging technology.

– Benioff told CNBC that “AI models became suicide coaches.”

– He made a similar regulatory call about social media at Davos in 2018.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Tuesday that “there has to be some regulation” of artificial intelligence, pointing to several documented cases of suicide linked to the technology.

“This year, you really saw something pretty horrific, which is these AI models became suicide coaches,” Benioff told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum’s flagship conference in Davos, Switzerland.

Benioff’s call for regulation echoed a similar call he made...

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