Anthropic's own IPO pitch deck to prospective stock owners has revealed the terrifying anxieties its owners have about where the techonoloy may take humanity.
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techonoloy → reveal → humanity
The AI company is poised to have the biggest ever initial public offering on Wall Street after filing to go public on Monday, with a valuation tipped to reach up to $2 trillion.
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valuation → poise → trillion
However, Anthropic's IPO prospectus goes into an unnerving amount of detail over philosophical and moral conundrums - which is not typical for most normal companies registering on the stock market.
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which → go → market
The super intelligence firm, headed by intensely safety-focused Dario Amodei, sprinkled their sales pitch with anxious disclaimers about AI's ruinous potential.
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firm → head → potential
Amodei and his six co-founders warned: 'Sufficiently advanced AI systems could, if not developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures, pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity.'
Anthropic starts its prospectus to potential investors: 'We believe that AI is one of the most consequential technologies in human history.'
But the doubt already seeps in: 'If managed well, it could rapidly accelerate scientific innovation, greatly increase economic growth rates, bring cures for major diseases within reach, and solve problems that have resisted generations of human effort.'
The prospectus, filled with colorful graphics of cells and circular scientific artwork ahead of 335 pages of text, laid bare the risks of AI in daunting detail.
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prospectus → warn → detail
The super intelligence firm, headed by intensely safety-focused Dario Amodei (pictured), sprinkled their sales pitch with anxious disclaimers about AI's ruinous potential
People protest artificial intelligence and data centers ahead of a New York City Council Committee hearing on the risks and regulation of artificial intelligence
It reads: 'To build AI is to harness cognition itself, and anything so powerful can be used for ill as well as good.
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anything → head → ill
Anthropic is a deeply values-driven organization, founded in large part to help the world realize AI's benefits and avoid its dangers.
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world → drive → dangers
This is a stark reference to Amodei's abrupt departure from the artificial intelligence company he worked for up until 2020, Sam Altman's OpenAI.
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he → work → 2020
He left Altman's firm because of a breakdown of trust in management and integral disagreements over AI safety and governance.
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He → leave → safety
This pushed Amodei to set up his own competing company with his sister, Daniela, in 2021.
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This → push → 2021
The propsectus continues listing the risky factors that are plaguing their AI company: misuse, loss of control, authoritarian abuse, and economic disruption.
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that → continue → control
It reads: 'Authoritarian governments may use AI to create high-tech surveillance states, deepen repression, and make themselves much more difficult to dislodge.
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themselves → read → repression
AI can be misused by those who wish to do harm, for example to conduct cyberattacks or to design biological weapons.
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who → misuse → weapons
For this, the Anthropic boss said that they already 'regularly' shut down attempts by bad actors to misuse their AI chatbots - including when the terrorist Houthi group used Claude to build ballistic milles earlier this year.
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group → say → milles
Amodei then issued a rather sinister warning about what may happen if the AI starts working on its own without any humans controlling it.
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humans → issue → it
The Anthropic CEO also referenced how he's aware the AI boom will likely mean entire workforces are wiped out, causing mass economic disruption 'similar to what has happened with previous technologies... but greater in magnitude.'
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what → reference → magnitude
Artificial intelligence has been compared to the Industrial Revolution in the way it is fundamentally changing the way we work, make money, and operate as a society.
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we → compare → society
Amodei said the company is committed to 'running studies' to help governments figure out how best to deal with potential economic downfalls triggered by AI.
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governments → say → AI
The CEO's biggest concern is also written out in the prospectus - the fact that his technology 'poses catastrophic or existential risk to humanity.'
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, Anthropic Co-Founder and Chief Compute Officer Tom Brown, and Atreides Management Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Gavin Baker during National Design Studio's launch event for America.gov in September
People protest artificial intelligence and data centers ahead of a New York City Council Committee
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People → write → Committee
This ultimate risk factor, Amodei hopes, can be mitigated if the tech is 'developed, deployed, and operated with appropriate safeguards, oversight, and security measures.
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tech → hop → safeguards
But apart from the serious notes of doom and gloom, Anthrophic used their opening IPO letter to gush about the ways in which their super technology is helping humanity.
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technology → use → humanity
In California, Claude is helping to shorten the lines at the DMV, and to better serve people on Medicaid.
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Claude → help → Medicaid
In the United Kingdom, it is helping job seekers find their way through government services.'
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seekers → help → services
Amodei lead on its successes with breakthroughs that AI can make in biology and medicine, namely to cure diseases that have 'plagued humanity for millennia.'
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that → lead → millennia
He hinted that more innovation is on the horizon - including making a tool for gene editing.
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innovation → hint → editing
We have started to directly make biological discoveries with Claude: among them is the discovery of a molecular machine that might have the potential to be developed into a novel biotechnology tool, perhaps for gene editing.
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that → start → editing
Rather idyllically, Amodei also painted a picture where his AI can 'bend the arc of geopolitical history in the direction of freedom.
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AI → paint → freedom
And at the pinnacle, Anthrophic wants to 'ensure that free societies,' like the United States, 'lead in the world's most powerful technology.'
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societies → want → technology
Amodei finished the prospectus by saying: 'We hope you will see it as an opportunity to be part of something greater.
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you → finish → something
'We have a rare opportunity to shape it for the better.'
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We → have → better
The Aporia
