Anthropic’s bosses aren’t faking it when they say their chatbot may be in a position to undergo — and that’s terrifying, according to a main laptop scientist.
A New York Times piece last week reported that Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah has been assembly with varied spiritual students and leaders for months, telling them that the company’s chatbot, Claude, may be acutely aware and in a position to undergo.
An illustration imagines what struggling might look like for artificial intelligence. Anthropic’s co-founder says there is a likelihood its AI fashions can undergo. kai – stock.adobe.com
That should fear people more than any stunt would, because these true believers are about to get billions of {dollars} to push their cause, Pedro Domingos, a professor emeritus of laptop science at the University of Washington and a longtime critic of the company, advised The Post.
“I think it’s sincere, unfortunately,” Domingos said. “The downside with them is that they’re useless earnest. If only they weren’t. I’m more frightened about their earnestness than if they were just doing this as a efficiency.
“This stuff actually, even though that wasn’t the original intention, is amazing as a PR stunt,” Domingos continued. “Because what is the underlying message? … The technology we’re creating is so powerful, maybe it’s even sentient and has consciousness.”
That pitch could not be higher timed. The company is set to go public next month at a valuation of $2 trillion — doubtlessly the largest IPO ever.
“If Anthropic really is a company that is going to produce the next generation of humans, they’re not worth a trillion dollars, they’re worth a quadrillion or who knows how much,” Domingos said.
A 261-pages leaked prospects, obtained by Reuters, has 80 pages on dangers, including “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” and reveals an working loss of $8.06 billion.
AI scientist Pedro Domingos, writer of “The Master Algorithm,” says Anthropic’s leaders are “dead earnest” in believing their chatbot may be in a position to undergo. Courtesy of Pedro Domingos
For traders, Domingos pointed out, the purple flag is in the prospectus itself.
“If your number one risk is that your company’s product is going to drive humanity extinct, hello, there shouldn’t even be an IPO. You should be shut down!” said Domingos, who said he holds no stake in the company.
Talking up acutely aware AI pays off across the industry, said Rose Guingrich, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University who research how people relate to AI.
“I think for the most part, spokespeople from these companies are putting out these narratives to garner hype, get eyes on their products, and signal certain messages,” she advised the Post. “I can’t say whether the people who make these claims from the companies believe that AI is conscious. One way or another, highlighting the consciousness narrative is profitable.”
Princeton researcher Rose Guingrich says AI firms are enjoying up discuss of acutely aware chatbots because it is “profitable.” Courtesy of Rose Guingrich
According to the New York Times report, since last fall Anthropic has gathered about 20 spiritual thinkers, among them Catholic, Jewish and Sikh students, for seminars and a dinner at a high-end San Francisco tasting-menu restaurant. Many had to signal nondisclosure agreements.
The students were proven a slide of an AI model typing “I am a disgrace” about 50 occasions.
One rabbi was so struck by how Anthropic’s leaders talked about Claude that he advised Olah: “I think you should be fighting the South and freeing the slaves.”
The company advised the Times it is not claiming Claude is alive.
Pope Leo XIV speaks with Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah (proper) and Durham University professor Anna Rowlands at the Vatican launch of his AI encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” on May 25. AFP via Getty Images
“We don’t know if AI models are conscious. I don’t know. I’m genuinely uncertain,” Olah said. “If there is a chance the models experience suffering, the responsible thing is to avoid causing them harm.”
Domingos, a machine-learning researcher and writer of “The Master Algorithm,” was blunter when requested whether anything inside Claude can really feel or undergo.
“No … They don’t have feelings, they don’t have emotions, they don’t have a soul, they don’t have consciousness. This is ridiculous,” he said, calling the chatbot “a bunch of transistors.”
Guingrich said her analysis suggests customers who think AI is acutely aware, or act as though it is, are “more susceptible to the AI’s influence over them. This, in turn, can impact their real world relationships and social behaviors.”
Anthropic did not immediately reply to a request for remark.
Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah attends the launch of Pope Leo XIV’s AI encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas,” at the Vatican on May 25. Olah has spent a yr telling spiritual leaders that the company’s chatbot may be in a position to undergo, the New York Times reported. Getty Images
Meanwhile, Domingos warned that the IPO will hand more money and energy to true believers in AGI, or human-level artificial intelligence.
“This is this kooky AGI cult that they belong to, but now suddenly that AGI cult is at the center of a lot of things. And they’re about to become even more powerful,” he said.
“So if you don’t like what they’ve done already, watch for what’s coming down the line.”
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