AI needs a 'brake pedal', warns Anthropic co-founder

Already, Anthropic's popular chatbot Claude is operating on code of which 80% the system wrote itself. Getting to 100% is possible within two years, Clark said, and "would have huge implications". It did not require AI companies to submit to safety testing , something that remains a voluntary effort. Major AI companies pursuing advances in the technology, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, have also not said they will pause their own research. Anthropic has grown so quickly since its founding five years ago that it is preparing to debut on the public stock market. It is poised to be one of the first public listings by a newer AI firm and one of the most valuable stock listings in history, as Anthropic's valuation is estimated $1tn (£745bn). Clark said Anthropic's motivation for publicly discussing the growing capability of AI technology is not to further burnish its reputation with paying customers. He simply wants to "tell the world what we're seeing inside these companies with this unusual technology". Bloomberg via Jack Clark was one of seven former OpenAI employees to co-found Anthropic in 2021 Since its founding , Clark and a handful of other executives, Anthropic has positioned itself as outspoken about potential risks stemming from AI. It even engaged in a public dispute with the US Department of Defense over concerns that its AI tools would be used in mass surveillance of Americans and autonomous warfare. "I am worried for my kids if we as a society don't have a serious conversation about what the implications of AI's continued advances mean," Clark told Newsnight. "There are potentially great benefits. There are also risks." Clark added that one of the risks is a disruption to the economy, with fears that AI technology like "agents" - essentially individual AI bots that conduct routine tasks somewhat autonomously could take over certain jobs. Major tech companies have conducted mass layoffs over the last year, often citing the growing ability of AI tools to do the work of hundreds or even thousands of software engineers.