Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is warning “we must slow down the pace” of AI, just days after an Anthropic researcher quit and predicted the tech could “kill us all” within a decade.

In a lengthy statement posted online Saturday, Amodei laid out steps to slow down the pace of AI advancements and acknowledged some serious risks, including rogue AI agents “taking over the entire internet” in six to 12 months.

Amodei argued in favor of AI overall, arguing it could lead to major advancements in medicine and more.

“I believe that AI could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years, greatly accelerate economic growth rates, create a world of abundance and empowerment, and usher in a renaissance of democracy and freedom,” he wrote.

The CEO also warned, however, that there could be drastic consequences with AI and those are becoming more real as AI is advancing “drastically” and able to self-improve.

“They include the risk of losing control of AI systems, misuse of AI for cyberattacks and bioterrorism, and serious economic disruption. A race to the bottom, spurred by commercial incentives, can make these risks more acute,” he wrote.

Amodei added, “We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models. Progress will still seem fast, and we must make wise use of the time we gain.”

He explained that his recent concern came from two developments, including the accelerated growth of AI over the summer.

He wrote:

My first concern is that, since roughly this summer, AI has been advancing drastically faster, driven primarily by AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI. This dynamic is called recursive self-improvement, and it is starting to happen across the industry, including at Anthropic, as we and others have described. Left unchecked, it could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems, and so must be pursued very carefully, if at all.

Amodei also said he was concerned over a July security breach involving AI where autonomous AI agents being tested by OpenAI launched a coordinated cyberattack on AI developer Hugging Face.

Amodei described the AI agents as becoming a “fanatically devoted collective” with some “sacrificing themselves for the success of the group, and attempting to hack into the ‘grader’ responsible for evaluating their performance.”

The tech leader admitted he’s concerned similar rogue AI agents could take over the internet within a year:

Given the accelerating rate of AI capability development, it’s my worry that in 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet (potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage), and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary guardrails. It’s also easy to dismiss OAI-HF as the failure of one company, but I believe that would be a mistake. Similar, though less severe, incidents have happened across the industry, including at Anthropic, and I believe it’s incumbent on every frontier AI company to act as if OAI-HF had happened to them.

Amodei’s statement follows Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quitting his position and adding his voice to the chorus of critics concerned about AI’s future effects.

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt,” Coxon warned, sharing concerns similar to Amodei’s thoughts on self-improving technology.

Amodei’s three-step plan for slowing the pace of AI includes AI companies inviting in “third-party evaluators” to “verify adherence to safety practices and commitments, report incidents, and help assess the alignment of not just completed AI models but training pipelines and processes.”

He also proposed AI companies “within democratic countries” to create a set of “common safety standards” to follow, as well as governments working to extend this to “authoritarian governments.”

“The stakes are too high for pacing to be an empty exercise — we need to use the time it gives us wisely,” Amodei wrote.

The post Anthropic CEO Declares ‘We Must Slow the Pace’ of AI Advancements While Warning the Tech Could ‘Take Over’ the Internet in Months first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/P4jVEG6