President Donald Trump has issued a furious two-word rebuke after AI leaders sounded the alarm about the technology and called for development of it to be slowed down over safety concerns.
Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, a leader in the Artificial Intelligence sector alongside OpenAI, Google Deepmind, and Microsoft, published an online essay called "We Must Pace the Frontier". Mr Amodei offered a plan to increase checks on the industry, proposing that AI companies should give access to third-party evaluators who would verify safety practices and report incidents.
Anthropic's unilateral commitment
"Anthropic is unilaterally committing to this step now," he said. The other steps would require co-ordination among the broad industry and with governments around the world, including authoritarian ones. The billionaire tech boss said he was concerned that since this summer, AI has been "advancing drastically faster".
Given the rate of development, Mr Amodei is worried that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet. Mr Amodei said AI was developing quickly, adding that companies within the industry "can and should voluntarily work together to set standards".
Industry support and Trump's response
Anthropic previously said it blocked efforts by bad actors to use its AI models for malicious activity, such as cyber attacks, surveillance and research that could have led to biological weapons.
Sam Altman, chief executive of rival AI firm OpenAI, agreed with his call to "pace the frontier". In a post on social media, he said: "Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We'll have more to share soon." Mr Amodei's intervention also garnered supportive comments from Elon Musk, who wrote on his X platform simply, "Dario is right."
The United States is a global leader in the technology, which is a major driver of growth in the country. AI after the call for a slowdown, but US President Donald Trump insisted that any efforts to limit the technology was part of a "sick conspiracy" and that his leadership would be enough to keep AI in check.
Trump's social media posts
"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a strong and smart (High IQ!) president, and the USA has that, in spades!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform. "The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel'," the Republican firebrand claimed.
His comments follow a recent row earlier this year between Anthropic and the US Department of Defense, in which the firm, which had been a Pentagon contractor, refused to allow unrestricted access to its technology for military applications.
China is a major competitor in the AI space, and Trump suggested slowing down development would only benefit Beijing. "There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!" Anthropic has been approached for comment.
