Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Axios; Behind the Curtain: Anthropic's warning to the world
"Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, the architect of the most powerful and popular AI system for global business, is warning of the imminent "real danger" that super-human intelligence will cause civilization-level damage absent smart, speedy intervention.
- In a 38-page essay, shared with us in advance of Monday's publication, Amodei writes: "I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species."
- "Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it."
Why it matters: Amodei's company has built among the most advanced LLM systems in the world.
- Anthropic's new Claude Opus 4.5 and coding and Cowork tools are the talk of Silicon Valley and America's C-suites.
- AI is doing 90% of the computer programming to build Anthropic's products, including its own AI.
Amodei, one of the most vocal moguls about AI risk, worries deeply that government, tech companies and the public are vastly underestimating what could go wrong. His memo — a sequel to his famous 2024 essay, "Machines of Loving Grace: How AI Could Transform the World for the Better" — was written to jar others, provoke a public debate and detail the risks.
- Amodei insists he's optimistic that humans will navigate this transition — but only if AI leaders and government are candid with people and take the threats more seriously than they do today.
Amodei's concerns flow from his strong belief that within a year or two, we will face the stark reality of what he calls a "country of geniuses in a datacenter.""
