Behind the Curtain: Anthropic's warning to the world; Axios, January 26, 2026

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.""

POPE FRANCIS ATTENDS THE G7 SESSION ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS, June 14, 2024

 The Vatican, POPE FRANCIS ATTENDS THE G7 SESSION ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: 

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS, Borgo Egnazia (Puglia)

[Excerpt]

            "An exciting and fearsome tool

 Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,

I address you today, the leaders of the Intergovernmental Forum of the G7, concerning the effects of artificial intelligence on the future of humanity.

“Sacred Scripture attests that God bestowed his Spirit upon human beings so that they might have ‘skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft’ ( Ex 35:31)”. [1] Science and technology are therefore brilliant products of the creative potential of human beings. [2]

Indeed, artificial intelligence arises precisely from the use of this God-given creative potential.

As we know, artificial intelligence is an extremely powerful tool, employed in many kinds of human activity: from medicine to the world of work; from culture to the field of communications; from education to politics. It is now safe to assume that its use will increasingly influence the way we live, our social relationships and even the way we conceive of our identity as human beings. [3]

The question of artificial intelligence, however, is often perceived as ambiguous: on the one hand, it generates excitement for the possibilities it offers, while on the other it gives rise to fear for the consequences it foreshadows. In this regard, we could say that all of us, albeit to varying degrees, experience two emotions: we are enthusiastic when we imagine the advances that can result from artificial intelligence but, at the same time, we are fearful when we acknowledge the dangers inherent in its use. [4]"