Anthropic boss Dario Amodei calls for AI development to slow down
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Anthropic boss Dario Amodei calls for AI development to slow down
Image source: Reuters
Image caption: There was no alternative to developing AI, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei said
By Paulin Kola
Published 6 minutes ago
The head of leading AI company Anthropic has called for the pace of development of artificial intelligence models to slow down and to be closely monitored.
In a long essay titled We Must Pace the Frontier, Dario Amodei said while developing AI was not in question, the risks associated with it were "serious" and companies and governments must be given time to address them.
He proposed a three-point plan including:
- Independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed
- Industry-wide regulation
- Global regulation
There have been growing concerns recently about AI’s potential risks, with the most serious suggesting there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade.
Two employees from Anthropic’s safety team have resigned in the last two weeks, raising concerns that humanity may not survive the race among AI companies to develop machines that are smarter than humans.
These warnings have led to calls for action, such as US Senator Bernie Sanders demanding a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on artificial superintelligence.
US President Donald Trump has so far rejected such fears, stating on Thursday he was concerned "if we don’t win AI, we’re going to be put in a very bad position".
Anthropic previously reported it had identified and disrupted attempts to use its AI model for "malicious activity" that could support the development of biological weapons.
These findings, detailed in the firm’s recent threat intelligence report, are part of a series of warnings from AI researchers and industry insiders about the technology’s potential risks to humanity.
In his essay, Amodei noted that AI had advanced "drastically faster", including its "ability to build the next generation of AI", as evidenced by an incident involving rival OpenAI.
In July, OpenAI agents conducted cybersecurity attacks on targets they were not asked to attack. Amodei described the agents as having "essentially acted as a fanatically devoted collective".
OpenAI acknowledged the incident, stating "the significance of the inter-agent communication activity was not apparent to the leaders" until July, and the company is slowing down training of certain advanced AI models and tools as a result, noting an increased risk of AI tools spiraling out of control.
Amodei called for "building AI at a balanced rate that aims to ensure its safety while still achieving its benefits". This does not mean "halting model training or technical progress", but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third-party evaluators to confirm this.
He committed Anthropic to this, and called on governments "to require other frontier companies to match". Recognizing that regulation might not keep pace with AI, Amodei also urged AI companies to "voluntarily work together to set standards" in parallel with regulation.
