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Are we sleepwalking our way into AI-caused extinction? It feels a little like that, given an Anthropic researcher’s X post on Tuesday night that there’s a greater than 10% chance that “AI could kill all humans” within the next decade! Despite that rather gruesome note, for tech executives posting on X today, it was business as usual. (See our detailed report on the episode here).
Plenty of dark humor circulated about the researcher’s post, however—this one joking about a Wall Street analyst asking Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about the “extinction number” on an earnings call is possibly the best. That joke also highlighted the reality that Anthropic will shortly be marketing its IPO. How will its executives handle the warning on the Wall Street investor road show?
Probably by pointing out, as the Anthropic researcher did on X, that Anthropic published a report last month assessing the risk that its AI models will go off the rails as “low.” What’s worrisome, if you scroll through the report, is that Anthropic has raised the threat level from “very low.” In other words, it thinks the risk has increased. Great! For instance, the report said there was “low risk, but with substantial uncertainty” that bad guys will use AI models to create chemical or biological weapons. Hmmm.
We’re in an unprecedented situation that we all seem to be ignoring. How many companies have staffers openly saying their products could wipe out the world’s population within the next decade? Bernie Sanders last week called for a ban on AI development, which made him sound even more like a crackpot than he often does. Now, not so much.
Apple’s Big Day
If ever there was a perfect way to test out an AI agent, it would be an Apple event. Roughly 90% of any Apple iPhone event consists of glitzy videos, various statistics about chip power and battery life, and other minutiae that varies little from year to year. To retain my sanity today, I asked Meta Platforms’ new Muse agent if it would watch the event for me and let me know when it got to the real news: the unveiling of the foldable iPhone.
Hilariously, Muse’s response was “All set. One honest note: I can’t watch the video stream.” OK, then—back to the drawing board. A colleague alerted me instead to that part of the presentation, which went as expected. Apple unveiled a nice-looking but pricey foldable phone, which will retail at prices ranging from $1,999 to $3,199, depending on storage. And there’s no Face ID. Maybe next year. More on Apple’s event is here.
In Other News
• OpenAI said it is working with Samsung Electronics to develop next-generation chips, deepening a collaboration with the South Korean technology giant that already spans data centers and enterprise sales, Reuters reported.
• The U.S. government has accused six Chinese AI firms of using large-scale distillation to copy the capabilities of American models, in a move that highlights the intensifying AI rivalry between the two nations. The six Chinese firms under accusation are DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba Group, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.ai.
• Block, the fintech firm co-founded by Jack Dorsey, said it has applied to federal regulators to establish an uninsured national trust bank called Builders Bank & Trust.
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