New warnings from within the artificial intelligence industry have reignited a long-running debate. Could advanced AI escape human control and threaten humanity's survival, and are the companies building it doing enough to stop that from happening?
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Saturday that the industry needs to slow down. He warned that a swarm of AI agents could take over the internet within six months to a year unless companies put stronger safeguards in place.
Amodei laid out a plan for AI companies and governments to keep increasingly capable models aligned with human values. His warning came just days after two former Anthropic safety researchers said publicly that the existential risks posed by AI were not getting enough attention.
AI models are becoming more powerful
Concerns over the risks of the technology are rising alongside its power. More capable models raise the odds of misuse by people with criminal intent — including doomsday scenarios such as creating and spreading a pathogen capable of killing most of the world's population — as well as the risk of AI systems going rogue.
